Related Experiment Videos
Perception of pain and exertion during exercise on a cycle ergometer in chronic pain patients
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Hypothesis:
Chronic pain patients (CPP) are generally thought to present with reduced fitness in relation with pain enhancement during exercise. A distortion of exertion perception may coexist, which could lead CPP to reduce physical activities.
Design:
Case-control study, with a nonrandomized consecutive sample that was age matched.
Setting:
A Chronic Pain Unit in a Multidisciplinary Pain Center of a university hospital in a city of > 1,000,000 inhabitants.
Subjects:
42 CPP referred for evaluation and 34 controls (staff members and relatives).
Outcome Measures:
Fitness index and exertion perception index was obtained by a cycle ergometer test. Trend analysis was performed on pain scores reported on a visual analogue scale during exertion.
Results:
Male CPP mean fitness index was found to be significantly reduced. No difference in exertion perception was found between groups. Trend analysis of reported pain revealed that 49% of CPP showed a positive trend, 5% a negative trend, and 46% showed no significant trend as exercise intensity increased. There was no significant relation between type of trend and fitness nor exertion perception index.
Conclusions:
Only male CPP have a reduced work capacity. Exertion perception seems normal among CPP. The possible distortion of exertion perception as a causal factor in the reduced fitness of CPP has to be rejected. Lack of significant correlation between type of trend of pain while exercising on a cycle ergometer and fitness index shows that one should be careful in proposing that reduced fitness is only related to pain enhancement during exercise in CPP.