Doctors can use several tools to assess your pain level with ankylosing spondylitis. Being as specific as possible in describing your symptoms can help doctors determine effective treatment options.

"On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" is the standard question doctors ask to assess pain. The problem is that pain tolerances vary, and one person's "three" may be someone ...

Attempt to obtain the patient's self-report, the single most reliable indicator of pain. Do not assume that a patient cannot report pain; many cognitively impaired patients are able to use a ...

Pain is deeply personal, yet healthcare still relies heavily on subjective scales to assess it. New research is exploring better tools, from refined questionnaires to biomarker-based devices, but each ...