Chronic pain after spinal cord injury: what characteristics make some pains more disturbing than others?

Different types of pain are often present in the same individual with spinal cord injury (SCI). Relieving the most disturbing of these pains may substantially affect quality of life. Persons with SCI and chronic pain (n = 194) completed a structured interview that detailed the characteristics of eac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of rehabilitation research and development 2007-01, Vol.44 (5), p.703-716
Main Authors: Felix, Elizabeth Roy, Cruz-Almeida, Yenisel, Widerström-Noga, Eva G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Care and treatment
Chronic Disease
Female
Humans
Male
Medical research
Pain
Pain - diagnosis
Pain - etiology
Pain - rehabilitation
Pain management
Pain Measurement - methods
Quality of Life
Severity of Illness Index
Spinal cord injuries
Spinal Cord Injuries - complications
Spinal Cord Injuries - rehabilitation
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:Different types of pain are often present in the same individual with spinal cord injury (SCI). Relieving the most disturbing of these pains may substantially affect quality of life. Persons with SCI and chronic pain (n = 194) completed a structured interview that detailed the characteristics of each pain they experienced. Pairwise analyses revealed that the following characteristics were more common among the most disturbing pains: "sharp"; "stabbing"; located at the level of injury; frequently aggravated; and having high intensity, unpleasantness, constancy, interference, and neuropathic pain-like features. A conditional logistic regression analysis showed that the combination of "sharp" and high pain intensity, interference, aggravation, and constancy significantly predicted the most disturbing pain (p < 0.001). This study suggests that, in addition to pain intensity, factors such as interference, quality, aggravation, and constancy of pain are important to consider when one evaluates SCI-related pain, since these symptoms may indicate pains that are particularly disturbing to an individual with SCI.
ISSN:0748-7711
1938-1352
DOI:10.1682/JRRD.2006.12.0162