Pain-Track: a time-series approach for the description and analysis of the burden of pain

Abstract

Abstract Objective To present the Pain-Track, a novel framework for the description and analysis of the pain experience based on its temporal evolution, around which intensity and other attributes of pain (texture, anatomy), interventions and clinical symptoms can be registered. This time-series approach can provide valuable insight on the expected evolution of the pain typically associated with different medical conditions and on time-varying (risk) factors associated with the temporal dynamics of pain. Results We illustrate the use of the framework to explore hypotheses on the temporal profile of the pain associated with an acute injury (bone fracture), and the magnitude of the pain burden it represents. We also show that, by focusing on the critical dimensions of the pain experience (intensity and time), the approach can help map different conditions to a common scale directly relating to the experiences of those who endure them (time in pain), providing the basis for the quantification of the burden of pain inflicted upon individuals or populations. An electronic version for data entry and interpretation is also presented.