Parkinson’s Disease Characteristics and Predictors of Pain

In an article e-published last week in the European Journal of Pain, patients with Parkinson disease were interviewed and completed questionnaires. Patients were classified as having tremor-dominant, postural instability and gait difficulty, or indeterminate phenotype.

The median duration of pain was 5 years, characterized as musculoskeletal, dystonia-related, central parkinsonian, and/or neuropathic or radicular, and the prevalence was 73%. As the pain was related to motor symptoms, the study called for a more integrated approach to both motor and nonmotor symptoms.

The study concluded that the patients “with central parkinsonian subtype had distinct demographic and clinical features, including lower levodopa responsiveness for non‐axial motor symptoms and greater responsiveness of pain to antiparkinsonian treatment.” Researchers stated that “Future clinical, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging studies of sensory symptoms ought to explore central parkinsonian pain as a manifestation of PD and the improvement of central parkinsonian pain should be considered as a treatment outcome in PD.”

Read about the study.

Read the abstract, with a link to the full article.