OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain is a common and universal phenomenon that appears at all ages and in all populations. It has a substantially impact on the quality of patients’ daily life as well as their physical and mental function. The objective of this study was to document attributes of a pain medication that are relevant from the perspective of patients with chronic pain. METHODS: In a first step literature review, focus groups with patients and one to one interviews with highly accepted experts in the field of indication were conducted to identify relevant treatment attributes of a pain medication. A pretest was conducted to verify the structure of relevant and dominant attributes using factor analysis and choosing the most frequent mentioned representative of each factor. The discrete choice experiment (DCE) itself used a self administered survey including sociodemographics and an indication specific parameter (pain). For statistical data analysis of the DCE, a random effect logit model was used and coefficients were presented. RESULTS: In a first step we detected 36 attributes. Factor analysis revealed seven remaining attributes. A total of N=1324 German patients participated in the self administered survey, resulting in the following ranking of relevant attributes for treatment decision:  “no character change”, “less nausea and vomiting”, “pain reduction” (Coefficient: > 0.9 for all attributes, “high impact”); “rapid effect”, “less danger of addiction” (Coefficient ~ 0.5, “middle impact”); “applicability with comorbidity” (Coefficient: ~ 0.3), “improvement of quality of sleep” (Coefficient ~ 0.25). All attributes were highly significant (p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Due to the subjective nature of pain, the management of chronic pain needs to be patient centered. Therefore an understanding of patient preferences is essential for inclusion in treatment decisions. In summary, DCE and direct assessment proved to be valid instruments to elicit treatment preferences in chronic pain treatment.