Table 1.

Example pain severity indicators

	No pain (category 0)	Some pain (category 1)	Controlled pain (category 2)	Severe pain (category 3)
Example modifiers (occurring before pain mention)	No	Some	Controlled	Severe
	Without	Mild	Controlling	Significant
	No complaint	Intermittent	Treatment for	Crushing
	Denied any	Occasional	Essentially controlled	Excruciating
	Absence of	Negligible	To control this	Exquisite
Example complements (occurring after pain mention)	Relieved	Dull	Controlled	Intractable
	Resolved	Not too bad	Managed	[8–10]
	0	[1–7]	Well managed	[Eight–ten]
	Zero	[One–seven]		Unbearable
		Persistent		Uncontrollable