scope:

This guideline provides recommendations for laboratory support for pain management clinics and services, including guidance on specimen types and collection, testing methodologies, results reporting, and interpretation. To assist in results interpretation, this guideline includes several tables listing expected metabolites for commonly encountered drugs.

The intended users of this guideline include medical laboratory scientists and personnel, hospital administrators, physician office personnel, risk managers, pharmacists, and health care providers tasked with establishing pain management testing for their institutions or networks.

This guideline does not discuss in detail the pathophysiology or biochemistry of chronic pain, nor does it include information on dosing or prescribing of pain management drugs.