Objective: To study the prevalence, type and severity of pain in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Pain is one of the recognised non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. However, not much research has been done into definitively defining pain and its management in Parkinson’s disease.

Methods: This was an observational study that included 51 patients with Parkinson’s disease from the Movement disorder clinic in the Institute of Neurology, MMC, Chennai. A structured interview which included questions about the presence, type, severity of pain was administered. The disease characteristics like duration and stage of PD was also noted. The severity of pain was graded using the visual analog score

Results: Out of the 51 patients included in the study, 33 (64.7%) had complaints of somatic pain. The most common localization of pain was to the lower back (33.33%) followed by the lower limbs (21.21%). Dystonic cramping pain (57.6%) was the most common type followed by dull aching type of pain (24.24%). In the visual analog score, 63.64% of patients had a score between 5 and 8 indicating moderate severity. Duration since onset of motor symptoms and stage of Parkinson’s disease did not significantly correlate with the presence of pain.

Conclusions: Pain is a common symptom in patients with Parkinson’s disease but has varying characteristics with subjective differences between patients and poor correlation with disease characteristics.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/a-study-of-pain-in-parkinsons-disease/