Table 2.
Pain Characteristics
| No. (%)
|
P Value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NMO (n=29) | MS (n=66) | |||
| Patients with pain | 25 (86.2) | 27 (40.9) | <.001 | |
| Current pain on 10-point scale, mean (range) | 5.38 (0–9) | 1.85 (0–10) | <.001 | |
| Categorized pain severity | ||||
| None (0) | 4 (13.7) | 39 (59.1) |
|
<.001 |
| Mild (1–3) | 3 (10.3) | 11 (16.7) | ||
| Moderate (4–6) | 7 (24.1) | 9 (13.6) | ||
| Severe (7–10) | 15 (51.7) | 7 (10.6) | ||
| Temporal pattern (% of those with current pain) | ||||
| Constant | 16 (64.0) | 14 (51.8) |
|
.22 |
| Intermittent | 6 (24.0) | 12 (44.4) | ||
| Transient | 3 (12.0) | 1 (3.7) | ||
| Pain syndromea | ||||
| Tonic spasm | 26 (89.7) | 26 (39.3) | <.001 | |
| Dysesthetic pain | 24 (82.8) | 41 (62.1) | .046 | |
| Banding/girdle | 20 (69) | 14 (21.2) | <.001 | |
| Lhermitte sign | 19 (65.5) | 28 (42.4) | .04 | |
| Retro-orbital pain | 16 (55.2) | 20 (30.3) | .02 | |
| McGill Pain Questionnaire score, mean (SD) [range]b | 38.7 (18.4) [0–68] | 17.2 (22.0) [0–60] | <.001 | |
| Description (% of those with current pain) | ||||
| Sharp | 20 (80.0) | 22 (81.5) | ||
| NMO: hot/MS: sickening | 18 (72.0) | 21 (77.8) | ||
| NMO: exhausting/MS: wretched | 16 (56.0) | 18 (66.7) | ||
| NMO: sickening/MS: shooting | 15 (60.0) | 15 (55.6) | ||
| NMO: wretched/MS: cramping | 15 (60.0) | 15 (55.6) | ||
| Intensity of pain score, mean (SD), (range, 1–5) | ||||
| Now | 2.3 (1.1) | 1.8 (0.9) | .03 | |
| Worst | 4.6 (0.8) | 3.9 (1.2) | .01 | |
| Least | 1.6 (0.9) | 1.3 (0.5) | .10 | |
Abbreviations: MS, multiple sclerosis; NMO, neuromyelitis optica.
a
Pain syndromes include both current and past pain.
b
McGill Pain Questionnaire score rates severity of pain descriptors based on current pain with maximum score of 78.