Clerking Of A Pateint

Answer 1

The SOCRATES acronym is a useful way of exploring a patient’s presenting symptoms. It is commonly used to take a comprehensive pain history, but it can be applied to most other symptoms.

SOCRATES provides a structure during medical history taking and helps you remember the most important questions to ask when exploring the history of presenting complaint.

Answer 2

The SOCRATES acronym stands for:

Site
Onset
Character
Radiation
Associated symptoms
Timing
Exacerbating and relieving factors
Severity

Answer 3

SOCRATES provides a structured framework for taking a medical history. Each section of SOCRATES is described below, with example questions.

Depending on the patient’s symptoms, not all parts of SOCRATES may be relevant. For example, some symptoms (e.g. breathlessness or fatigue) will not have a specific anatomical location or radiation.

Answer 4

OLD CARTS

OLD CARTS is an alternative mnemonic which can be used to explore the key aspects of each symptom. OLD CARTS stands for:

Onset
Location/radiation
Duration
Character
Aggravating factors
Relieving factors
Timing
Severity