Pain-Focused mental status examination

Abstract

This article reviews the basic approach one practitioner takes with new patients, with an emphasis on diagnoses that are frequently seen in a large pain medicine practice and maneuvers to detect them. A general review and basic schema are described that any pain physician should be able to perform. Obviously, the approach taken to a given patient varies based on the presentation of the patient, the background of the evaluating physician, and the presumed differential diagnoses.