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The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with evidence basedclinical guidance regarding assessing neuropathic pain. Persistent pain is a huge burden on health-care provision and the prevalence of persistent neuropathic pain is likely to increase owing to the ageing population. The provision of appropriate relieving interventions depends on accurate assessment. This paper sets out to provide the reader with simple neuropathic assessment tools that can be applied to community care. This will allow the community nurse to identify patients who have neuropathic pain and will therefore enable appropriate management.

Chronic pain may have devastating effects on the physical and psychological well being of many patients (Harden, 1999). Most community nurses are in contact with a number of patients with chronic pain and will be asked for advice and recommendations with regards to its management. Chronic neuropathic pain is a complex and sometimes intractable condition that patients will seek help for, from either GPs or from the community nursing teams. This article will examine one neuropathic pain syndrome - post-herpetic neuralgia - and review the evidence base in relation to treatment strategies, in an attempt to support community staff in the management of this difficult to treat pain syndrome.