Occurrence and characterisation of Pain in dysimmune neuropathies : a multicentre prospective study

BACKGROUND: pain is a common symptom of peripheral neuropathies that may severely affect patients' Quality of Life. Pain questionnaires, based on verbal descriptors, are a useful way to investigate it.
METHODS: we performed a multicentre study through validated measures to characterize pain in a sample of consecutive patients affected by immune-mediated neuropathies.
RESULTS: ninety-three patients were enrolled in 16 Italian centres. Based on the numeric rating scale, almost half of the patients complained of moderate pain and one-third of the patients severe pain. Overall, up to 50% of our patients with immune-mediated neuropathies complained of neuropathic pain. The most common neuropathic symptoms were paraesthesia/dysesthesia and superficial spontaneous pain. Surprisingly, also patients with neuropathies commonly thought to be painless (such as multifocal motor neuropathy) reported discomfort and painful symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS: pain questionnaires should be considered in the clinical evaluation of immune-mediated neuropathies, also when evaluating therapy efficacy, because they may provide clinicians with useful information on painful symptoms and patients' quality of life.