• Irina Raicher, StumpPatrick Raymond Nicolas Andre GhislainPRNAGNeurology Departament, Pain Center, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.Instituto Lauro de Souza Lima, Bauru, Brazil., Simone Bega Harnik, Rodrigo Alves de Oliveira, Rosemari Baccarelli, Lucia H S C Marciano, Somei Ura, VirmondMarcos C LMCLInstituto Lauro de Souza Lima, Bauru, Brazil., Manoel Jacobsen Teixeira, and de AndradeDaniel CiampiDCNeurology Departament, Pain Center, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.Pain Center, Cancer Institute of Sao Paulo Octavio Frias de Oliveira, Univesity of Sao Paulo, Brazil..
• Neurology Departament, Pain Center, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Pain Rep. 2018 Mar 1; 3 (2): e638.

IntroductionPrevious studies reported a high prevalence of neuropathic pain in leprosy, being especially present in "pharmacologically cured" patients. The presence of neuropathic pain in leprosy poses a supplementary burden in patient's quality of life, daily activities, and mood.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to assess whether neuropathic pain in leprosy has similar symptom profile as neuropathic pain of other etiologies and to retrospectively assess the efficacy of neuropathic pain medications regularly prescribed to leprosy.MethodsLeprosy and nonleprosy patients had their neuropathic pain characterized by the neuropathic pain symptom inventory (NPSI, ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 being the maximal neuropathic pain intensity) in a first visit. In a second visit, leprosy patients who had significant pain and received pharmacological treatment in the first evaluation were reassessed (NPSI) and had their pain profile and treatment response further characterized, including information on drugs prescribed for neuropathic pain and their respective pain relief.ResultsThe pain characteristics based on NPSI did not significantly differ between leprosy and nonleprosy neuropathic pain patients in visit 1 after correction for multiple analyses, and cluster analyses confirmed these findings (ie, no discrimination between leprosy and nonleprosy groups; Pearson χ2 = 0.072, P = 0.788). The assessment of pain relief response and the drugs taken by each patient, linear regression analysis showed that amitriptyline, when effective, had the highest percentage of analgesic relief.ConclusionsNeuropathic pain in leprosy is as heterogeneous as neuropathic pain of other etiologies, further supporting the concept that neuropathic pain is a transetiological entity. Neuropathic pain in leprosy may respond to drugs usually used to control pain of neuropathic profile in general, and amitriptiline may constitute a potential candidate drug for future formal clinical trials aimed at controlling neuropathic pain in leprosy.

6 keywords...

hide…