Chronic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Impact on Quality of Life in an Australian Community Cohort
Open accessAbstract
Unlabelled This cross-sectional study describes chronic pain in 94 persons with multiple sclerosis residing in the community. The characteristics of chronic pain, pain-related disability, pain treatments, barriers to health care, and impact on quality of life were examined. Sixty-four percent of participants reported chronic pain; of these, 60% had dysesthetic pain and 70% had episodic increases in pain. The mean numerical pain intensity rating score was moderate (5). Chronic Pain Grade was used to classify severity of pain, using scores for items for pain intensity and pain-related disability. Those in the higher pain grades had more disability and recorded more health care visits (P = .06) (not significant because of small sample size). Effective pain management techniques included analgesic medication and physical measures as reported by 54% and 44% participants, respectively. Participants' perceived barriers to health care included environmental and personal factors. Those with multiple sclerosis and pain, compared with those with no pain, showed a significant difference in the domain of psychological well-being scores (P = .01) on the Assessment of Quality of Life scale. Additionally, the domains of independent living (P = .009) and total scores (P = .04) showed better quality of life in participants with lower pain grades. Improved understanding of chronic pain in this population may facilitate early identification for timely intervention and minimize pain-related disability. Perspective This article describes chronic pain in persons with multiple sclerosis living in the community. The information regarding pain prevalence, pain-related disability, and impact on quality of life provides insight into the complex multidimensional pain experience. Improved understanding of pain and early intervention may contribute to the overall well-being and decrease pain-related disability in this population.
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The discrepancy between the previous review's 26.8% and the current review's 22.3% may be due to the previous review's inclusion of studies that exclusively investigated people with multiple sclerosis and pain, likely overinflating estimates.
“This discrepancy may be due to their inclusion of studies that exclusively investigated pwMS with pain, likely overinflating estimates (Ata et al. 2021; Foley et al. 2022; Khan and Pallant 2007; Kim et al. 2019, 2020; Solaro et al. 2004; Srotova et al. 2021; Young et al. 2017).”
From The Prevalence of Neuropathic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis—A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis Using the <scp>NeuPSIG</scp> Algorithm (2026) · cites this paper as Khan and Pallant 2007
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Cites
A health-related quality of life measure for multiple sclerosis
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Kratz, A. L., Murphy, S. L., & Braley, T. J. (2017) · Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation · doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2017.07.002 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Marck, C. H., De Livera, A. M., Weiland, T. J., Jelinek, P. L., Neate, S. L., Brown, C. R., Taylor, K. L., Khan, F., & Jelinek, G. A. (2017) · Frontiers in Neurology · doi:10.3389/fneur.2017.00461 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
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Central Pain in Patients with Multiple sclerosis
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“According to literature sources most of the studies reported as central pain only neuropathic extremity pain alone or in combination with trigeminal neuralgia [4,6,13,20] Only in the, study by Foley, where investigators used pooled prevalence estimates, explored heterogeneity using meta-regression, and analysed preval…”
BackgroundResultInfluentialJungersen, R. C., Baccaro, V. K., Hvid, L. G., Dalgas, U., & Hoegh, M. (2026) · European Journal of Pain · doi:10.1002/ejp.70375 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Khan, F., & Pallant, J.
- Affiliations
- The Royal Melbourne Hospital (AU)
- Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Khan, Fary
- Venue
- The Journal of Pain
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-08
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 614-623
- ISSN
- 1526-5900 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2078458216
- Cited by
- 78
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 3.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Swinburne figshare (Swinburne University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Keywords
- chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, episodic pain, pain-related disability, quality of life, pain prevalence, barriers to care, analgesics, pain management, psychological well-being, independent living
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Australia, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Health Services, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Multiple Sclerosis, Pain, Quality of Life, Residence Characteristics, Severity of Illness Index, Cohort Studies, Prevalence, Statistics, Nonparametric
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