Doctors here are seeing more people with pain conditions, with hospitals reporting an increase of up to 60 per cent from three years ago.

The Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is going to start a database collection of the types of patients that doctors are seeing in its pain management centre and the kinds of pain conditions that are being managed.

This will be done by using the questionnaire below, which allows both doctors and patients to recognise how much the pain is impacting every aspect of their lives, ranging from sleep, mood and relations with friends and family, said Dr Tan Kian Hian, director of the pain management centre and senior consultant at the department of anaesthesiology in SGH.

This is important in helping doctors assess the pain in a more holistic manner instead of just managing the symptoms, he said.

Find out more about how pain is affecting your life by answering this questionnaire:

(Adapted and reproduced with permission from Charles S Cleeland, Pain Research Group)