The effects of central post-stroke pain on quality of life and depression in patients with stroke

Abstract

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to assess the effects of central poststroke pain on quality of life, functionality, and depression in stroke. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-four patients with stroke having central poststroke pain (a mean age of 60.6±8.5 years; 14 males, 10 females; Group I) and 24 similar age-and gender-matched patients with stroke without central poststroke pain (Group II) were enrolled. Characteristics of pain were recorded in patients with stroke having central poststroke pain. The Visual Analogue Scale and Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs pain scale were used to evaluate pain. The Functional Independence Measure was used to assess functionality, the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey was used to assess quality of life (QoL), and the Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess depression. [Results] There were no significant differences in Functional Independence Measure and Beck Depression Inventory. Some of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey domains (physical role limitations, pain, and physical scores) in Group II were significantly higher than those in Group I. Additionally, we found that a unit increase in Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs score led to 0.679 decrease in physical score and 0.387 decrease in mental score. [Conclusion] The physical component of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey is negatively affected in patient with central poststroke pain, but the mood and mental components of the scale unaffected.

The Effect of Pregabalin on the Quality of Life in Patients with Central Post-Stroke Pain

“…Chronic pain in CPSP is also known to potentially cause depression. 12 Pregabalin (3-isobutyl-ᵧ amino butyric acid) is a GABA analogue with a mechanism of action like gabapentin. It has analgesic, anticonvulsant, and anxiolytic effects.…”

Cerebral Stroke Lesion Location and the Risk of Post-Stroke Pain A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Nine studies only included patients with first-ever stroke [13][14][15][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], while 2 studies did not exclude patients with previous studies [9,10]. Eight studies did not mention the selection criterion about stroke history [11,12,16,17,[24][25][26][27]. Since different lesion site of stroke may have different effect, it is difficult to distinguish the impact of recurrent stroke with different lesion location.…”

“…There are several methods for pain measurement, such as Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) (5 studies [9,17,18,20,24]), numerical rating system (NRS) (5 studies [14,15,22,23,25]), Douleur neuropatathique en 4 questions (DN4) (3 studies [22,25,27]), The Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS) (2 studies [24,25]) or combined assessment. The check of PSSP is always companied with assessment of upper-limp.…”

Nonpharmacological therapies for central poststroke pain

“…[ 1 – 3 ] It is commonly characterized by spontaneous or evoked pain and sensory abnormalities, associated with the disruption of somatic sensations. [ 4 , 5 ] The pain can be continuous or intermittent [ 1 ] and usually varies in intensity, increasing with external stimuli such as cold, movement, touching, or stress, and decreasing with relaxation and distraction. [ 1 , 6 , 7 ] In most cases, the pain is described as burning, throbbing, pricking, aching, allodynia, lacerating, freezing, squeezing, or penetrating.…”