It’s often recommended to people who suffer chronic pain that keeping track of their pain and lifestyle is an excellent way of predicting flare-ups and indentifying their causes.
Of course, there’s the long hand route – methodically writing down all activity, mood, stressors, the weather, foods consumed, intensity of pain etc – literally a real-time autobiography, followed by detailed analysis of the data.
Smartphone Apps
However, in recent years a number of Smartphone Apps have been marketed aimed at simplifying the whole process; some general, some customisable, some tailored to specific conditions such as Fibromyalgia or to certain age groups such as teens. These Apps can analyse a variety of data to help identify trends and patterns with a view to enabling the user to act positively to minimise the occurrence of flare-ups.
A number of our clients suffering chronic pain have told us that they have used these types of App. As with so much related to chronic pain, some have found them useful, others not so.
Clearly, in predicting patterns and trends, these Apps are only as good as the quantity and quality of the information they gather. To a greater or lesser extent, they all therefore require a degree of daily self-discipline by the user in inputting the required data.
These Apps can readily organise data and prepare charts for both personal consideration and to assist your doctor.
What’s out there?
There are a large number of Apps available and common sense says that it’s all about finding the one that’s right for you; balancing ease of use against the usefulness of the information generated. So, research is key. To help, here are just a few of the products out there, with a link to their respective websites. We can make no representations as to whether they are good, bad or indifferent. At the end of day, that decision can only be that of the individual user.
Products
Flaredown claims to be“the most comprehensive symptom tracker ever created”, tracking food, medication, natural therapies, mental health, the weather and activity. The App seems readily customisable and reports are easy to prepare for your doctor.
Marketed as a “connected health platform” and “your connected health coach”, this App helps you to log your symptoms and targets content for your specific condition. Again, this App can create reports to assist your doctor.
In their own words “CatchMyPain is an intelligent pain diary app that helps you keep track of your pain and connect with similar patients.”
“CatchMyPain helps you to express your pain, explain it to others and observe the success of your treatment. On top of all this, you can connect with similar patients and support the fight against pain.”
This App tracks your daily data and then uses it to suggest connections between reported events and pain flare-ups. This includes automatically gathering local weather information to assess its possible involvement. The App also allows users to send data to their doctor.
This App allows users to “track data across 19 different health categories” and to easily present data in pdf format for your doctor.
“You can look at the details of your pain history and how that pain is affected by different pain triggers, your sleep patterns, or even the weather. Look at your medications and see which may be having the most impact on your pain levels.”
The ‘Lite’ version of this App is free.
This App seems straightforward to customise and allows you to input and track symptoms easily, as well as to create charts to visually represent the data which your doctor may find useful.
The ‘Lite’ version of this App is free.
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