Category: Parkinson’s Disease: Clinical Trials
Objective: The objective of our study is to assess the prevalence of central pain in patients with parkinson’s diseaseThe objective of our study is to assess the prevalence of central pain in patients with parkinson’s disease.
Background: Central pain is one type of pain that occurs in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Because of its low incidence and prevalence, it often goes unnoticed and affected patients do not therefore receive adequate analgesic therapy, which increases their suffering
Method: A retrospective study including 136 patients diagnosed with PD was conducted in the department of neurology of the Military Hospital of Tunis from 2011 to 2020.
Results: The study included 136 patients with PD for an average of 5.6 years. Forty-five patients suffer from central pain. Central pain was axial (52%, n=32), medullary (47%, n=24), visceral (26%, n=15), facial (9% , n=5), anogenital (5%, n = 3). The course was paroxysmal 90% of cases (n = 41) and continued in the rest of the cases (n = 4). The mean DN4 score was 4.7 with extremes ranging from 0 to 8. Thirty-one of our patients had a DN4 score more than 4. The usual analgesics used by 30% of patients (15 of 45) did not improve. Adjustment of antiparkinsonian therapy was associated with a mean gain in DN4 score of 2 points in two-thirds of patients (n = 30).
Conclusion: Treatment with L-DOPA has been demonstrated to have an analgesic effect on this type of pain. Future studies are required to improve our understanding of this condition, and to develop interventions for preventing and treating it.
References: Moreno, C. B., Hernández-Beltrán, N., Munévar, D., & Gutiérrez-Alvarez, A. M. (2012). Dolor neuropático central en enfermedad de Parkinson. Neurología, 27(8), 500–503. Rukavina, K., Leta, V., Sportelli, C., Buhidma, Y., Duty, S., Malcangio, M., & Ray Chaudhuri, K. (2019). Pain in Parkinsonʼs disease. Current Opinion in Neurology, 1.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Elfekih, I. Bedoui, B. Douma, M. Mansour, H. Derbali, A. Riahi, M. Messelmani, J. Zaouali, R. Mrissa. Central pain in Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/central-pain-in-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/central-pain-in-parkinsons-disease/