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Updated: May 10, 2026
A Protocol of Manual Tests to Measure Sensation and Pain in Humans
Published on: December 19, 2016
Value of quantitative sensory testing in neurological and pain disorders: NeuPSIG consensus
Miroslav Misha Backonja1, Nadine Attal, Ralf Baron
1Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA CRI Lifetree Research, Salt Lake City, UT, USA INSERM U-987, Centre d'Evaluation et de Traitement de la Douleur, Hôpital Ambroise Paré, APHP, Boulogne-Billancourt, France Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, France Division of Neurological Pain Research and Therapy, Department of Neurology, Universitatsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany Dental Public Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, USA Department of Anesthesiology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Center for Neurosensory Disorders, University of North Carolina, CB No. 7280, 3330 Thurston Bldg, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Department of Neurosurgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland Clinical Pain Research, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden Clinic of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Brugmann University Hospital, 4 place Van Gehuchten, B-1020 Brussels, Belgium Institute of Neuroscience, 52, Avenue E. Mounier, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium Université Catholique de Louvain, Leuven, Belgium Department of Neurology, Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil GmbH, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany Danish Pain Research Center and Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark Department of Pain Medicine, Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil GmbH Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany Center for Pain Evaluation and Treatment, University Neurological Hospital, Lyon, France Imperial College London, UK Chelsea and Westminster Hospital London, UK Department of Palliative Medicine, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn, Germany Department of Neurology, MC Mutual, Barcelona, Spain Neuroscience Technologies, Barcelona, Spain Neuroscience Technologies, London, UK Department of Neurology, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany Chair of Neurophysiology, Center for Biomedicine and Medical Technology Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, S. Anna University Hospital of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy University of Minnesota, 425 Delaware St SE, MMC 295, Minneapolis, MN, USA Department of Anesthesiology, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA Department of Family Medicine and Department of Anesthesia, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel Institute for Clinical Diabetology, German Diabetes Center at Heinrich Heine University, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research and Department of Metabolic Diseases, University Hospital, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is a psychophysical method used to quantify somatosensory function in response to controlled stimuli in healthy subjects and patients. Although QST shares similarities with the quantitative assessment of hearing or vision, which is extensively used in clinical practice and research, it has not gained a large acceptance among clinicians for many reasons, and in significant part because of the lack of information about standards for performing QST, its potential utility, and interpretation of results. A consensus meeting was convened by the Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain (NeuPSIG) to formulate recommendations for conducting QST in clinical practice and research. Research studies have confirmed the utility of QST for the assessment and monitoring of somatosensory deficits, particularly in diabetic and small fiber neuropathies; the assessment of evoked pains (mechanical and thermal allodynia or hyperalgesia); and the diagnosis of sensory neuropathies. Promising applications include the assessment of evoked pains in large-scale clinical trials and the study of conditioned pain modulation. In clinical practice, we recommend the use QST for screening for small and large fiber neuropathies; monitoring of somatosensory deficits; and monitoring of evoked pains, allodynia, and hyperalgesia. QST is not recommended as a stand-alone test for the diagnosis of neuropathic pain. For the conduct of QST in healthy subjects and in patients, we recommend use of predefined standardized stimuli and instructions, validated algorithms of testing, and reference values corrected for anatomical site, age, and gender. Interpretation of results should always take into account the clinical context, and patients with language and cognitive difficulties, anxiety, or litigation should not be considered eligible for QST. When appropriate standards, as discussed here, are applied, QST can provide important and unique information about the functional status of somatosensory system, which would be complementary to already existing clinical methods.
