OBJECTIVES: To identify and assess the diagnostic accuracy of screening tools used to detect chronic neuropathic pain (NeP) in patients with chronic diseases compared with the reference standard of clinical judgment. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of the literature to identify and evaluate the discriminant characteristics of screening questionnaires chronic NeP in patients with a comparative clinical assessment. The search was performed on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and LILACS databases. Cohort studies, diagnostic tests accuracy studies, cross-sectional studies and randomized clinical trials (RCT) were included.  Study selection and data extraction were accomplished by two independent researchers. A qualitative analysis was included comparing the sensitivity, specificity and receiver operator characteristics (ROC) across the various screening tools. Quantitative analyses were not conducted due to the high heterogeneity of the published studies. RESULTS: We included 23 studies: 16 diagnostic, 5 cohort, 1 cross-sectional and 1 RCT.  Seven questionnaires were identified: Douleur Neuropathique en 4 Questions (DN4), Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS), ID-Pain, painDETECT, the self-report version of LANSS (S-LANSS), Standardized Evaluation of Pain (SteP) and the Neuropathic Pain Questionnaire (NPQ). The screening tools most frequently researched regarding validation and reliability across different languages were DN4 and LANSS. The DN4 reported higher sensitivity than LANSS; 61%-100% vs. 22% to 89%, respectively. Specificity was similar between the DN4 and LANSS; 73%-97% vs. 74%-100%, respectively. The ROC of DN4 was higher for the LANSS compared with DN4; 0.89 (standard deviation or SD 0.71 to 0.99) vs. 0.99 (0.73 to 0.96), respectively. Overall, the DN4 reported better diagnostic accuracy compared to the other six screening tools. CONCLUSIONS: A systematic review of the literature identified the DN4 as the most studied screening tool with robust discriminant characteristics to detect chronic NeP.