chronic pain

Saint Louis University Opens Neuroscience Research Institute

With an overarching goal of improving patients’ health and life quality, Saint Louis University (SLU) has opened an institute for neuroscience researchers working in a variety of fields to study disorders of the central nervous system, includingĀ multiple sclerosis (MS). The Institute for Translational Neuroscience (ITN), an outgrowth of the…

The Heel That Won’t Heal

The dull throbbing always hits a crescendo “in the wee small hours,” as Mr. Sinatra ā€” or rather his songwriters ā€” so aptly put it. Iā€™m referring to a wound thatā€™s been with me for over a year now. True, it disappeared for a teeny while, when my heel…

What Is Trigeminal Neuralgia in MS All About, Anyway?

My immediate thought after reading a recent MS News Today headline stating that trigeminal neuralgia (TN) affects more than 3% of MS patients was, “Really, only 3%?” The reason is I’ve seen several complaints about the condition, which causes excruciating pain in the face. As the story noted, TN…

The Painful Tooth: My Weekend of Agony

Iā€™ve written about trigeminal neuralgia (TN), which entails severe facial pain, many times. Let me count the ways. Please excuse me while I go off and search through my columns. I’ll be a while. Well, it turns out I’ve written specifically about it only three times,…

Using Cannabis to Treat Your MS? A Word of Caution

People with MS who are using cannabis take heed: A research letter published in May in JAMA Network Open reports that calls to poison control centers about people intentionally or inadvertently using plant-based or processed cannabis products have been increasing over the past several years. Public health officials are…

The Mouth That Roared and Roared

Strap in: This is not going to be a fun one. Even less so for me ā€” though I’m writing this under the sort of drug load that Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson would have been proud of! Not for fun (or dependence!) but for survival. “Since TNĀ is…

Pain Meds Help Me Live

There is no guidebook to living with a chronic, progressive, and incurable disease. Even if such a book existed, it would only be somewhat applicable, as things change on a daily basis. We are all as unique as this disease, yet have one commonality: pain. Before my multipleĀ sclerosis…

Chronic and Neuropathic Pain in MS Patients Should Be Routinely Evaluated, Study Says

Multiple sclerosis patients should be routinely assessed for chronic and, especially, neuropathic pain in order to properly diagnose and treat this condition, which appears to directly affect the degree of a patient's disability, a new study reports. Pain is one of the most disabling clinical symptoms of MS, associated with suffering, distress, and lower quality of life. Many studies have investigated the prevalence of chronic pain in MS patients but with highly varying results: estimates range from 29 percent up to 92 percent. This disparity is likely due to methodological differences between the studies, as well as differences in the studied population. The result is the prevalence of pain in MS is still unclear, and underdiagnoses of pain in this patient population likely. Researchers in Italy conducted a single-center study to determine the prevalence and characteristics of chronic pain, defined as constant pain for more than three months, in a population of MS patients. Pain was evaluated using validated tools, and the results were analyzed in relation to clinical features such as disease duration and disability. In total,Ā 374 MS patients with different disease severities were assessed for pain. Results found an overall prevalence of chronic pain of 52.1,Ā most frequently affecting the lower limbs. Neuropathic pain, which refers to pain resulting from a lesion or disease impacting the sensory nervous system, was the most frequent type of chronic pain, affecting 23.7 percent of the patients analyzed. Pain intensity was also found to be significantly higher in patients with neuropathic pain compared to those with non-neuropathic pain. Researchers measured patients' disability using the Expanded Disability Status Scale. They determined that patients with chronic pain, and especially those with chronic neuropathic pain, had significantly higher EDSS scores (meaning greater disability) than those without such pain. Both these patient groups were also more likely to be on long-term pain medications: 33 percent of MSĀ patients with neuropathic pain, and 24 percent of those with chronic pain. These results indicate that pain is underdiagnosed and undertreated in MS patients, and a factor that may contribute to increased disability. ā€œOur results suggest that clinical disability is higher in MS patients with chronic pain and, in particular, in those with neuropathic pain,ā€ the researchers concluded. ā€œThe present study supports the routine assessment of neuropathic pain in MS patients.ā€

A Beacon of Hope Amid MS-Related Pain

Do you have pain? Although prone to subjectivity, I am certain the majority of you silently said yes. I did. I hesitated to write this, as pain, from the definition of it to the management of it, is idiosyncratic. Rather than draw hard and fast lines, I prefer to…