Severity of chronic pain and its relationship to quality of life in multiple sclerosis

This study used reliable and validated instruments to compare pain severity in multiple sclerosis (MS) to that in other chronic painful conditions, and to examine relationships between chronic pain in MS and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Ninety-nine MS patients completed a self-administered survey comprised of the Medical Outcomes 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Pain severity was not different between MS patients with pain and rheumatoid arthritis (P = 0.77) or osteoarthritis (P = 0.98) patients. Chronic pain in MS was less often neurogenic than non-neurogenic, although severity of neurogenic pain was greater than that of non-neurogenic pain (P = 0.048). Chronic pain in MS was found to have no significant relationship to age, disease duration or disease course. Instead, we found that pain was correlated with aspects of HRQOL, particularly mental health (r = 0.44, P < 0.0001) versus physical functioning (r = 0.19, P > 0.05). Chronic pain was significantly related to anxiety and depression for females but not for males with MS.

Chronic pain in MS is as severe as pain in arthritic conditions and is associated with reduced HRQOL. Thus, pain can be a significant symptom for MS patients and the need for treatment may be underestimated.