A pain trigger tracker app should help you with two questions: under which circumstances your pain runs higher, and whether a new treatment made a difference. PainTrack has a tool for each. With tags you note what was going on when you log an entry, and the trigger analysis works out which tags coincide with higher values. With events you mark the day something changed in your treatment and compare the weeks before with the weeks after.
Memory handles both questions badly. After a bad day you look for a reason and find one. The calm days with the same circumstance slip your mind.
Adding tags and events costs nothing. Both analyses are part of PainTrack Pro.
Tags: record what came with the day
To tag an entry:
- Tap the plus circle in the middle of the bar and choose your intensity.
- Tap "+ Add tags" to open the catalogue.
- Pick the circumstances, such as "slept poorly" or "feeling stressed". Add the pain type if you like, for example stabbing, dull or throbbing.
- Save the entry. The tags then appear under it in the Diary.
If a circumstance is missing, add it under More → Tags: type the name under "New tag" and tap "Add tag". From then on it shows up in the catalogue. On the same screen you delete tags you don't need, preset ones included. Deleting a tag removes it from every entry, and the confirmation tells you how many entries that affects.
Set a tag each time the circumstance applies, good days included, and keep logging on days without it. The analysis compares entries with a tag against entries without it and needs both groups.
Reading the trigger analysis (Pro)
You find it on the Analysis page in the "Insights" card, under the "Triggers" view. It looks at the last 180 days and, for each circumstance, compares your intensity on entries that carry it with all other entries. The comparison uses the deviation from the average of each pain, which keeps a 0 to 10 scale and a yes/no pain comparable. Besides circumstances, PainTrack checks pain types and weekdays.
A circumstance appears once the period holds at least 12 entries, 4 with it and 4 without. If the difference stays under 0.5 points, the circumstance shows in grey: evaluated, "no clear difference". The card lists the four strongest. If there are more, a button opens a sheet with the full list, the period and an explanation of the calculation. Behind the info icon, "Where your tags stand" shows which tags are already evaluated and how many entries the others still need.
Say you logged 70 entries over three months, 15 of them with "slept poorly", and your intensity on those 15 averages 1.5 points above your norm. That circumstance will sit near the top. It still tells you nothing about cause: you might sleep badly because the pain is already worse at night. PainTrack adds the note "A correlation, not a cause" to every analysis. Telling coincidences from real patterns is the subject of finding your pain triggers.
Events: compare before and after
An event is a calendar day on which something changed in your treatment. To add one:
- Open More → Events and tap "Add event". You can also tap "Add event" in the "Events" view of the "Insights" card.
- Choose the day under "On" and one of five options under "Type": Changed medication, Started therapy, Surgery, Changed daily routine or Other.
- Enter a "Label", for example "Physio starts", and a "Note" if you want one.
- Tap "Create event".
For medications PainTrack saves you a step. When you add a regular medication, stop it or change its dose, the app asks "Mark as event?". Tapping "Mark" creates the event, such as "Start: …" or "Stopped: …". All events also appear in the Diary, and the "Events" filter shows them on their own.
The comparison (Pro) lives in the same "Events" view. It sets up to 28 days before the event against up to 28 days after. A neighbouring event or today's date shortens both windows, and each result states how many days went into it. You only get a result when both sides have enough entries on enough different days. Several pains count equally. If something is missing, the event list names it for each side.
So leave some time between changes. If you start physiotherapy and switch medication in the same week, the two events sit so close that neither window gets long enough. More on a clean before/after comparison is in is my pain treatment working?.
Free and Pro
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Set tags, create your own tags | yes | yes |
| Add events | yes | yes |
| Events in the Diary | last 3 months | unlimited |
| Before/after comparison | no | yes |
| Trigger analysis | no | yes |
| Monthly report with the strongest trigger | no | yes |
| Events and patterns in the PDF doctor's report | no | yes |
Under More → Events you see all events without Pro, with no time limit. The trigger analysis covers 180 days, so tags you set before upgrading count straight away. Monthly reports and the PDF only name clear effects; the article on the PDF doctor's report shows where they appear.
Who this is for
- Anyone about to start a new treatment. Mark the start day and log regularly for four weeks before and after. Your next appointment then has a comparison in numbers.
- Anyone who suspects a trigger such as sleep, stress or alcohol. After a few weeks of tagging you see whether the suspicion shows up in your data.
- People tracking several pains. With two or more active pains, the selection at the top of the Analysis page decides which ones go into the analysis.
Both analyses rest on a diary you keep up regularly. The groundwork is in how to keep a pain diary.
Frequently asked questions
Can a pain tracker app find the cause of my pain? No. The trigger analysis shows correlations between tags and your intensity. Whether a cause sits behind one is a question for your doctor.
How many entries does the trigger analysis need? A circumstance gets evaluated once the last 180 days hold at least 12 entries, 4 with it and 4 without. The info icon on the card shows where each tag stands.
Can I create my own triggers? Yes. Under More → Tags you add your own tags for free. They appear in the catalogue when you log, and with Pro they feed into the trigger analysis.
What happens if two events are close together? The neighbouring event shortens the comparison windows. If they end up too short, PainTrack shows no result and explains why behind the card's info icon.
PainTrack is not a medical device and does not replace medical diagnosis or treatment. The app is intended for personal documentation and self-observation.