SOCRATES (pain assessment)
SOCRATES is a
emergency medical services, physicians, nurses, and other health professionals to evaluate the nature of pain that a patient
is experiencing.
Uses
SOCRATES is used to gain an insight into the patient's condition, and to allow the health care provider to develop a plan for dealing with it.[1][2] It can be useful for differentiating between nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain.[3]
Adverse effects
SOCRATES only focuses on the physical effects of pain, and ignores the social and emotional effects of pain.[4]
Procedure
| Letter | Aspect | Example Questions |
|---|---|---|
| S | Site | Where is the pain? Or the maximal site of the pain. |
| O | Onset | When did the pain start, and was it sudden or gradual? Include also whether it is progressive or regressive. |
| C | Character | What is the pain like? An ache? Stabbing? |
| R | Radiation
|
Does the pain radiate anywhere? |
| A | Associations | Any other signs or symptoms associated with the pain?
|
| T | Time course | Does the pain follow any pattern? |
| E | Exacerbating / relieving factors | Does anything change the pain? |
| S | Severity | How bad is the pain? |
History
SOCRATES is often poorly used by health care providers.[5] Although pain assessments usually cover many or most of the aspects, they rarely included all 8 aspects.[5]
See also
- History of presenting complaint
- Medical history
- OPQRST
References
- ^ a b Clayton, Holly A.; Reschak, Gary L. C.; Gaynor, Sandra E.; Creamer, Julie L. (December 2000). "A novel program to assess and manage pain". Medsurg Nursing. 9 (6): 318–312 – via ProQuest.
- ^ PMID 26647478– via Europe PMC.
- ^ Schofield, Marcia; Shetty, Ashish; Spencer, Michael; Munglani, Rajesh (May 2014). "Pain Managment [sic]: Part 1". British Journal of Family Medicine. 2 (3).
- S2CID 201675367.
- ^ S2CID 206923364.