Pain Syndromes in Multiple Sclerosis Patients – Patient Experience at Lipik Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation

: In the study, we evaluated 61 multiple sclerosis patients hospitalized at our hospital in the period from October 1, 2013 to February 15, 2014. The aim of the study was to investigate pain syndromes associated with the underlying disease. Pain in the month preceding assessment was reported by 90% of patients. Most patients suffered from low back pain (52%) and musculoskeletal pain (39%), followed by neck pain (31%), painful tonic spasm (26%), neuropathic extremity pain (23%) and pain due to spasticity (21%). Other types of pain were present in less than 20% of patients. A total of 67% of patients were taking analgesics; the most frequently used were nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, while drugs against neuropathic pain were taken by a smaller number of patients. The high incidence of pain syndromes pointed to the importance of regular physical therapy procedures.