Chronic and acute pain syndromes in patients with multiple sclerosis

We have studied 122 patients (52 men and 70 women) with definite Multiple Sclerosis (MS) to evaluate the frequency and clinical characteristics of pain in MS. The Hamilton Rating Scale for depression, the Beck-Self Depression Inventory and the Kurtzke Disability Status Scale were used in all patients. We have divided the patients with pain in two groups: patients with pain syndromes at onset and patients with pain syndromes during the course of MS disease. We found that 57% of all our MS patients complained of pain syndromes at some time during the MS course, while 21% reported pain as a symptom at onset of MS. The majority of patients suffered from chronic pain (constant or intermittent pain lasting more than one month). The most frequent chronic syndromes were dysesthetic extremity pain, painful spasms and tonic seizures. We did not find a significant differences with respect to age, sex, disease duration, physical impairment, depressive symptoms between the patients of pain-free group and of pain groups. There was a significant difference in mean disease duration from diagnosis in patients reporting pain at onset of the disease. In conclusion, the pain in MS is not a rare symptom; the role of physiopathological mechanism underlying pain syndromes arise unclear.