There has been much debate over the years as to the most appropriate definition of pain. Some suggest that it is ‘whatever the patient says it is and occurs when he/she says it does’ (McCaffery and Beebe, 1989). But what if the person cannot ‘say’ they have pain in a language that can be understood? The International Association for the Study of Pain, for example, proposes the definition: ‘An unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage’.