• Eur J Pain · May 2018

    Increased pain sensitivity in migraine and tension-type headache coexistent with low back pain: A cross-sectional population study.

    • S Ashina, R B Lipton, L Bendtsen, N Hajiyeva, D C Buse, A C Lyngberg, and R Jensen.
    • Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
    • Eur J Pain. 2018 May 1; 22 (5): 904-914.

    BackgroundLow back pain is common in the general population and in individuals with primary headaches. We assessed the relative frequency of self-reported back pain in persons with and without primary headaches and examined pain sensitivity.MethodA population of 796 individuals completed a headache interview based on ICHD criteria and provided data of interest in a self-administered questionnaire. Headache cases were classified into chronic (≥15) (CH) or episodic (<15 headache days/month) (EH). A total of 495 had a pericranial total tenderness score (TTS), and 494 had cephalic and extracephalic pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) assessed.ResultsAdjusted for age, gender, education and poor self-rated health, 1-year relative frequency of back pain was higher in individuals with CH (82.5%) and EH (80.1%) compared to no headache group (65.7%). In persons with back pain, TTS was higher in CH, (26.3 ± 12.1) than in EH, (18.5 ± 10.0; p < 0.001) and higher in both groups than in those with no headache, 10.8 ± 8.5 (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). In persons with back pain, temporalis PPT were lower in CH, 169.3 ± 57.8, than in EH, 225.2 ± 98.1, and in no headache group, 244.3 ± 105.4 (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01, respectively). In persons with back pain, finger PPT were lower in CH, 237.1 ± 106.7, than in EH, 291.3 ± 141.3, or in no headache group, 304.3 ± 137.4 (p = 0.02 and p < 0.001, respectively).ConclusionBack pain is highly frequent in individuals with CH, followed by EH and no headache. In persons with CH, back pain is associated with lower cephalic and extracephalic PPTs suggesting central sensitization may be a substrate or consequence of comorbidity.SignificanceWe found that back pain has high relative frequency in individuals with CH followed EH and no headache. Back pain is associated with low cephalic and extracephalic PPTs in individuals with CH. Central sensitization may be a substrate or consequence of this comorbidity of back pain and CH.© 2018 European Pain Federation - EFIC®.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…