1) Does your pain feel like strange, unpleasant sensations in your skin? Words like pricking, tingling, pins and needles might describe these sensations.

2) Does your pain make the skin in the painful area look different from normal? Words like mottled or looking more red or pink might describe the appearance.

3) Does your pain make the affected skin abnormally sensitive to touch? Getting unpleasant sensations when lightly stroking the skin, or pain when wearing tight clothes might describe this.

4) Does your pain come on suddenly and in bursts for no apparent reason when you’re still? Words like electric shocks, jumping and bursting describe these sensations.

5) Does your pain feel as if the skin temperature in the painful area has changed abnormally? Words like hot and burning describe these sensations.

Allodynia on sensory testing: Lightly stroke cotton wool across the non-painful area, then the painful area. Pain or unpleasant sensations such as tingling, pins & needles or nausea occurring only in the painful area indicates allodynia.

Altered pin-prick threshold (PPT): Using a 23-gauge (blue) needle in a 2 mL syringe barrel, apply the tip to the non-painful area, then the painful area. A different sensation (e.g., a normally sharp prick becoming dull or excessively painful) in the painful area indicates an altered threshold. If neither area feels the prick, increase pressure or add weight to the barrel and repeat.