Mankoski Pain Scale - Blog Posts

So I've seen a lot of talk about pain scales. How there should be a special one for chronic pain patients or people who say they're 11 out of 10, etc.

The thing with pain scales though, they are supposed to be about the bodies reaction to pain. A pain scale is supposed to be about how to appropriately treat a patient. So if a person is a 10 from something you'd be a 6, their pain still needs to be treated in accordance to how it feels for the patient (in a perfect world). Your 5 may be another person's 9 but that's beyond the point. 10 is still the peak for the worst pain possible you can handle. Pain where you black out and can't speak. Where you go into shock. Where you can't do anything but lay there locked in agony. That is the peak for anyone period because that's where the body taps out. There shouldn't be extra numbers for chronic pain patients or anything. It defeats the purpose of pain scales. A good pain scale is about physical reactions with the body.

No pain scale is perfect but doctors need some way to gauge how to treat a patient. This one is the one I prefer the most because it is about the body's physical reaction to pain and the treatment for it.