Education — it's the first step toward taking an active role in your pain treatment. The more you know about your pain condition, the better prepared you will be to manage your pain. Armed with accurate, up-to-date information you and your health care provider can design the pain management plan that will work best for you. If you're in crisis, click here. 

Tips for Finding a Pain Specialist. We have put together some tips to help you find a pain physician. Please take a look to get some ideas on how you can proceed.

Personal Pain Inventory. Use this interactive survey to record all the details of your particular pain history, including where you hurt, when the pain began, and the types of treatment you have tried. After you complete the Inventory, it becomes a vital record of your pain history that can help you and your health care provider design an effective pain management plan.

Personal Pain Journal. This is where you can record your day-to-day experiences with pain and pain management. Keep track of when you hurt least and when you hurt most; what activities control your pain; and what treatments work best. By keeping a Personal Pain Journal you gain the valuable information you need to communicate with your health care provider and effectively manage your pain condition.

You'll need a user ID and password to access your Pain Inventory and Pain Journal. To set up your account, click on the Login or Register link. The information you record in the Inventory and Personal Pain Journal is for your use only, and is strictly confidential.

Treatment Options. We have information about both "traditional" treatment, such as medications, injections and surgery, and "complementary" approaches, such as acupuncture, biofeedback and chiropractic. Information about physical therapy and treatment for the psychological factors associated with pain also can be found in this area. There may be some treatment options described here which you have not yet considered — have a look.