Is There a Relationship between Chronic Pain and Autonomic Dysreflexia in Persons with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury?

Eva Widerstrom-Noga, Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, Andrei Krassioukov

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to define the relationships among clinical characteristics of chronic pain, injury characteristics, affective factors and autonomic dysreflexia (AD) in people with chronic cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). A survey containing questions concerning the presence of AD, demographic factors, clinical characteristics of pain and affective symptoms, was mailed to people with traumatic SCI and chronic pain included in the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis database. Of all subjects (n = 330) reporting chronic pain in a previous study, 181 had cervical injuries. Of this subset, 117 (64.6%) participated in the study. Thirty-five people (29.9%) reported AD in our study. Although intense pain has previously been reported to trigger AD, the average pain intensity was not predictive of AD. Pair-wise comparisons indicated that people reporting AD marked significantly more painful areas in the drawing and used more descriptive pain adjectives. Anxiety and sadness were significantly more frequent among people with AD. Furthermore, aggravation of pain due to muscle spasms, infections, full bladder, and constipation was significantly more common among people with AD. The logistic regression analysis indicated that a combination of having widespread pain, experiencing aggravation of pain due to infections, having a complete injury, and experiencing anxiety significantly predicted AD. Our results suggest that relationships between chronic pain and AD exist. Since multiple pain types are common after SCI and may be associated with AD, it is important to determine which pain types that may be particularly important for the condition of AD.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)195-204
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Neurotrauma
Volume21
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2004

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Autonomic Dysreflexia
Spinal Cord Injuries
Chronic Pain
Pain
Cervical Cord
Wounds and Injuries
Anxiety
Affective Symptoms
Spasm
Constipation
Infection
Paralysis

Keywords

  • Autonomic dysreflexia
  • Chronic pain
  • Pain intensity (NRS)
  • Spinal cord injury

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Neuroscience(all)

Cite this

Is There a Relationship between Chronic Pain and Autonomic Dysreflexia in Persons with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury? / Widerstrom-Noga, Eva; Cruz-Almeida, Yenisel; Krassioukov, Andrei.

In: Journal of Neurotrauma, Vol. 21, No. 2, 01.02.2004, p. 195-204.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Widerstrom-Noga, E, Cruz-Almeida, Y & Krassioukov, A 2004, 'Is There a Relationship between Chronic Pain and Autonomic Dysreflexia in Persons with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury?', Journal of Neurotrauma, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 195-204. https://doi.org/10.1089/089771504322778659
Widerstrom-Noga E, Cruz-Almeida Y, Krassioukov A. Is There a Relationship between Chronic Pain and Autonomic Dysreflexia in Persons with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury? Journal of Neurotrauma. 2004 Feb 1;21(2):195-204. https://doi.org/10.1089/089771504322778659
Widerstrom-Noga, Eva ; Cruz-Almeida, Yenisel ; Krassioukov, Andrei. / Is There a Relationship between Chronic Pain and Autonomic Dysreflexia in Persons with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury?. In: Journal of Neurotrauma. 2004 ; Vol. 21, No. 2. pp. 195-204.
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