OPQRST

Pain Assessment

Six questions that turn "it hurts" into a useful history.

Memory aids matter when a vignette gives you a complaint of pain and a list of answer choices that all sound plausible. OPQRST — Onset, Provocation/Palliation, Quality, Radiation, Severity, Time/Timing — turns a vague history into the specific features that drive a differential. Sudden onset suggests vascular or rupture; pleuritic worsening points at PE or pneumonia; tearing radiation to the back is aortic dissection until proven otherwise. AANP exam questions reward candidates who recognize a history element as the discriminator — substernal pressure with exertion is angina, not GERD — and OPQRST is the structure that makes those features visible without re-reading the stem three times.