A thorough evaluation of chronic pain includes a full history and physical, including a mental health assessment and a neurologic exam, which tests the functioning of the nerves. Your health care professional may also ask you to keep a pain log or diary and record such details as the length of pain, where it occurs, when it occurs, the intensity of the pain, and what factors seem to bring it on, make it worse, and relieve it.
Medical testing may also include a wide variety of tests, depending on an individual's case, to find the source(s) or causes(s) of pain. Test can include blood tests and radiological imaging, such as X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, and/or MRI. An electromyogram (EMG) may be ordered to help determine if pain is coming from the nerves or the muscles. Nerve blocks, in which an anesthetic is injected into a nerve, may also be used to determine if a particular nerve is the source of chronic pain.
These home medical tests may be relevant to Chronic Pain Syndromes:
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