What are pain behaviors? The doctor's report on my daughter says she showed a moderate number of pain behaviors.

Health care professionals may observe verbal and facial expressions that indicate a patient is in pain. Grunts, sighs, and moans are examples of verbal cues showing that the person is in pain.

How the patient moves his or her body may also give good clues as to the intensity of the patient's pain experience. For example, arching the neck and back or clenching the jaw may be signs of moderate to severe pain.

Other patients may use facial expressions, hand clenching, or body rocking to show the same thing. When rating pain, the patient may be asked questions to show frequency, intensity, and duration of the symptoms. Frequency (how often it happens), intensity (how strong it is), and duration (how long it lasts) give objective data to help measure the pain experience.

Number of body movements or facial changes may be counted by an observer to get similar data. All of this information can be used to measure progress or improvement in a patient. Sometimes it's useful to help others see when patients need skills to manage their chronic pain.