Parkinson's disease-associated pain in a Mexican Institute

Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) presents as a chronic condition with symptoms that worsen over time. Many PD patients experience pain at some point during their illness. This complaint is often overlooked because PD is primarily a motor disorder. The main objective is to assess the prevalence and the most frequent type of pain in this population, as well as its relation to common neuropsychiatric factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted including 196 patients diagnosed with PD. The variables analyzed included age, gender, smoking, alcohol consumption, anxiety, depression, antiparkinsonian treatment (levodopa, dopaminergic agonists, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and amantadine), intake of antidepressants or antipsychotics, age of symptom onset, age of diagnosis, years of progression, total MDS-UPDRS 3.3 score, total MDS-UPDRS score, MDS-non-motor symptom scores, Hamilton depression and anxiety scales, and montreal Cognitive Assessment. Results: Our patient cohort consisted of 115 males (58.7%) and 81 females (41.3%), with a mean age of 63.56 +/- 11.88. The mean disease duration was 7.18 +/- 4.9 years. The most common type of pain was musculoskeletal pain, present in 66.7%, followed by radicular pain (24.2%), pain related to fluctuations (22.7%), chronic pain (20.7%), nocturnal pain (17.2%), discoloration, edema, or swollen pain (14.6%), and orofacial pain (5.6%). Conclusions: From the study carried out, it can be observed that the most common type of pain was musculoskeletal pain, followed by radicular pain. Pain patients had a significant association with depression and anxiety due to the intensity of pain.