Medication and treatment use in primary care patients with chronic pain of predominantly neuropathic origin

Background. Neuropathic pain is widely recognized as one of the most difficult pain syndromes to treat and presents a significant challenge for pain clinicians and GPs. Methods. The Self-complete Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (S-LANSS) questionnaire, recently validated for ident...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Family practice 2007-10, Vol.24 (5), p.481-485
Main Authors: Torrance, Nicola, Smith, Blair H, Watson, Margaret C, Bennett, Michael I
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Analgesics - therapeutic use
Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal - therapeutic use
Anticonvulsants - therapeutic use
Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use
Central Nervous System Agents - therapeutic use
Chronic Disease
Chronic pain
Drugs
Female
Health Surveys
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neuralgia - drug therapy
Neuralgia - epidemiology
Neuralgia - therapy
neuropathic pain
Opioids
Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care)
Pain Measurement
Parasympatholytics - therapeutic use
Physical Therapy Modalities - utilization
Prevalence
primary care
Primary health care
Primary Health Care - methods
Relief
S-LANSS
Severity of Illness Index
treatment
United Kingdom - epidemiology
Urban Health
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Summary:Background. Neuropathic pain is widely recognized as one of the most difficult pain syndromes to treat and presents a significant challenge for pain clinicians and GPs. Methods. The Self-complete Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (S-LANSS) questionnaire, recently validated for identifying pain of predominantly neuropathic origin (POPNO), was sent to 6000 adults identified from general practices in the UK. The questionnaire also contained items about chronic pain identification, medications and treatments received for pain and the pain relief these provided. Results. In total, 1420/3002 (48%) of respondents indicated that they suffered with any chronic pain. These were further categorized as those with chronic pain who were S-LANSS negative [‘chronic pain (non-POPNO)’ group, n = 1179] and those with chronic pain who were S-LANSS positive, indicating the presence of POPNO (‘chronic POPNO’ group, n = 241). Questions relating to treatments and medications were completed by 88% of the respondents (1244/1420). The chronic POPNO group was more likely to receive multiple pain medications (37% versus 21% took two or more pain medications, P 
ISSN:0263-2136
1460-2229
DOI:10.1093/fampra/cmm042