title: Pain perception, pain drug therapy and health status in patients with Parkinson's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Parkinson's disease (PD) is traditionally characterized as a movement disorder; however, sensory perception problems including pain syndromes are also frequent. We performed a survey to analyze the relations between health status, pain perception and gender in 4,086 PD patients. Moreover, the participants should tick whether they took pain medications or not.
  
  
  METHODS
  The questionnaire included the EQ-5D and visual analogue scales (VAS) on pain, which asked for mean (VAS A), most (VAS B), and minimal (VAS C) intensity of pain during an interval of 4 weeks prior to the completion of the survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PD patients were divided into three groups according to their EQ-5D total score (I: <8; II: 8-9; III: 10-15). An impairment of health status occurred in relation to the increase in pain syndromes in PD patients. There was a significant increase in VAS scores in relation to the EQ-5D group membership. Female patients reported more on pain and more frequently received a pain drug treatment than male patients. Significant associations were found between the VAS and the EQ-5D scores, and the correlation coefficients were higher in men than in women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pain is associated with the health status of PD patients and worsens it. More female than male PD patients have to deal with handling of pain and pain drug treatment.
authors: Department of Neurology, St. Josef Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany. th.mueller@alexius.de
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Müller
authors: Siegfried
authors: S
authors: Muhlack
authors: Dirk
authors: D
authors: Woitalla
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires