OBJECTIVES: One of the challenges for innovation in chronic pain treatment is to provide consistent pain control over a 24-hour period. How does this clinical objective translate into concepts relevant to patients, and do the existing instruments adequately capture these concepts? METHODS: Thirty face-to-face exploratory interviews were conducted by psychologists in France, Germany and the UK with patients with chronic pain (cancer-related pain excluded) to collect information on how they describe the course of pain over 24 hours and how changes in pain levels and the time they occur affects their everyday lives. In parallel, a list of related concepts and a description of the conceptual contents of existing instruments was extracted from the literature. RESULTS: Analysis of the patient interviews resulted in the identification of several concepts related to 24-hour pain control which are closely intertwined with one another: type of pain (background, breakthrough, and end-of-dose pain), description (occurrence, intensity, sensation), worsening, relieving, triggering factors, impact of pain (particularly patients’ activities of daily living, sleep and mood), pain medication (efficacy, time to efficacy, duration of efficacy, frequency medication is taken) and pain over time (evolution over one day). Most of these concepts are partially or extensively covered by existing instruments. However, no instrument is comprehensive enough to be used as a standalone measure. CONCLUSIONS: The control of 24-hour pain is complex and requires multidimensional assessment. Despite the considerable number of pain questionnaires available, no specific measurement instrument exists that fully addresses the concerns of patients. To accurately capture the benefits of once-daily treatments in pain control, researchers need either a new instrument, or the adaptation of a series of existing questionnaires to form a consistent and comprehensive battery.