Pain experience in Parkinson’s disease patients: preliminary results of a cohort study

Abstract

Background: Pain is frequent in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and has a great impact on life quality. The aim of the study was to establish the presence of the pain in a cohort of PD patients. Material and methods: Study sample consisted of 102 consecutive PD patients, (mean age 61.51 ± 8.87 y.o.; disease duration 65.78 ± 41.34 mo.; 55 women and 47 men) evaluated for pain presence and divided into groups with and without pain: “PD pain +” and “PD pain -“ Results: The groups were similar according to ages (61.02 ± 9.61 vs. 62.51 ± 7.69 y.o.) and levodopa dose (729.85 ± 483.29 vs. 708.31 ± 357.50). Pain was present in 64 patients (62.7%) of all study group; more frequent in women (56.3% vs. 43.8%, p> 0.05), with motor fluctuations (72.4% vs. 27.6%, p> 0.05), with dyskinesia (64.0 % vs. 36.0%, p> 0.05) and restless leg syndrome patients (72.7% vs. 27.3%, p> 0.05). Akinetic-Rigid (0.83 ± 0.80 vs. 0.64 ± 0.56, p> 0.05), and quality of life scores (59.70 ± 25.46 vs. 53.84 ±35.76, p> 0.05) were insignificantly higher in “BP pain + “patients. They had longer disease duration (74.19 ± 39.99 y.o. vs 53.29 ± 41.06 y.o. p=0.017), higher depression (16.36 ± 11.97 vs. 8.09 ± 6.42, p=0.000), psychological (10.28 ±6.20 vs. 4.77 ± 2.82, p=0.000) and non-motor symptoms (66.27 ±39.25 vs. 46.68 ± 32.56, p=0.015) scores. Conclusions: Pain is common in PD, especially in long disease associated with motor complications, depression and other non-motor symptoms.