socrates (pain assessment) socrates (pain assessment) socrates is a mnemonic acronym used by emergency medical services, physicians, nurses, and other health professionals to evaluate the nature of pain that a patient is experiencing. uses socrates is used to gain an insight into the patient's condition, and to allow the health care provider to develop a plan for dealing with it. it can be useful for differentiating between nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain. adverse effects socrates only focuses on the physical effects of pain, and ignores the social and emotional effects of pain. procedure socrates letter aspect example questions s site where is the pain? or the maximal site of the pain. o onset when did the pain start, and was it sudden or gradual? include also whether it is progressive or regressive. c character what is the pain like? an ache? stabbing? r radiation does the pain radiate anywhere? a associations any other signs or symptoms associated with the pain? t time course does the pain follow any pattern? e exacerbating / relieving factors does anything change the pain? s severity how bad is the pain? history socrates is often poorly used by health care providers. although pain assessments usually cover many or most of the aspects, they rarely included all 8 aspects.