How can Pain be Assessed? > Subjective Assessment

Verbal Descriptors

Words such as mild, moderate, severe, excessive, excruciating, localised, sharp, dull, burning are used as verbal descriptors by humans describing their own pain.  However, such descriptors, developed to allow humans to describe their pain (McGill Questionnaire, Melzak 1975) are difficult to apply to animal pain.  Holton et al (2001) tried to evaluate the use of such descriptors by veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses with limited success.