Pain Perception, Pain Drug Therapy and Health Status in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is traditionally characterized as a movement disorder; however, sensory perception problems including pain syndromes are also frequent. We performed a survey to analyze the relations between health status, pain perception and gender in 4,086 PD patients. Moreover, the participants should tick whether they took pain medications or not. Subjects and Methods: The questionnaire included the EQ-5D and visual analogue scales (VAS) on pain, which asked for mean (VAS A), most (VAS B), and minimal (VAS C) intensity of pain during an interval of 4 weeks prior to the completion of the survey. Results: PD patients were divided into three groups according to their EQ-5D total score (I: <8; II: 8-9; III: 10-15). An impairment of health status occurred in relation to the increase in pain syndromes in PD patients. There was a significant increase in VAS scores in relation to the EQ-5D group membership. Female patients reported more on pain and more frequently received a pain drug treatment than male patients. Significant associations were found between the VAS and the EQ-5D scores, and the correlation coefficients were higher in men than in women. Conclusions: Pain is associated with the health status of PD patients and worsens it. More female than male PD patients have to deal with handling of pain and pain drug treatment. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel