Pain
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Although trigeminal neuralgia and atypical facial pain can usually be distinguished on the basis of several well-established criteria, differential diagnosis is difficult in a small number of patients. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is capable of discriminating between the two syndromes and might therefore serve as a diagnostic aid. The MPQ was administered to 74 patients in Pittsburgh and the data were analyzed statistically in Montreal. ⋯ To determine whether the key descriptors were able to predict the diagnosis of a second group, the discriminant function derived from the first analysis was applied to a new group of 21 patients. A correct prediction was made for 90% of the patients. The results indicate that, in difficult cases, the MPQ may be a useful tool to aid in differential diagnosis.
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Chronic pain research tends to focus on responses to thresholds, tolerance, and discrimination involving painful stimuli. This investigation, however, examines responses of individuals with chronic pain to non-painful stimuli. Two-point thresholds were obtained from 19 chronic pain patients and 17 pain-free individuals. ⋯ D., 15.0 mm) than that of the control group, which had a two-point threshold of 30.8 mm (S. D., 7.4 mm). The results indicate that chronic pain decreases tactual sensitivity to non-painful stimuli.