I have Parkinson’s and I’m in pain. My body aches and I hurt. “Chronic pain is often poorly
recognized and under-treated by health care providers despite being reported as the most common non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s.” Studies report that between 65% and 80% of PWP experience significant pain if they have the disease long enough. Many primary care doctors and some neurologists will tell you that Parkinson’s disease does not hurt. Doctors often attribute PD related pain to normal muscle ache, aging, or arthritis. Most people who have the disease achingly disagree.
You may not experience pain as an early symptom but it will show up as the disease progresses. Women develop painful symptoms more often and with greater intensity than men The type of pain and its location vary from person to person. It usually occurs or is worse on the side of the body most affected by PD. Researchers define four primary types of Parkinson’s pain: Musculoskeletal pain is the aching or burning pain of muscles and skeleton and is the most common type of pain. It can usually be treated with meds. 15% - 40% of PWP have pain from the tightness, twisting and aching of dystonia and dyskinesia possibly as a side effect of taking levodopa to combat PD. 25% have neuropathic pain that radiates from the nerves. Central pain is sudden sharp often burning pain that occurs for unknown reasons in 10% of PWP.
Although often overlooked, pain caused by Parkinson’s mental, emotional, and psychological symptoms can have a greater impact on daily life and hurt more than the four movement based pains. Parkinson’s mental pain is caused by experiencing the continuous negative emotions, mental anguish, and suffering of a progressively debilitating disease. Can depression, anxiety, and stress be painful? You bet they can. Physical pain is the kind of pain that hurts but emotional pain can break you. Physical pain can usually be quickly alleviated by meds. Emotional pain may not respond to drugs and if it does it may take months and leave you feeling completely destroyed.
A multidisciplinary team approach for pain management may be necessary to treat PD pain. Each person’s journey with Parkinson’s is unique, and so is his or her experience with pain. Thus, everyone’s treatment plan will be unique. Treatment should begin with a thorough assessment of the persons medical history to determine if the pain is really PD related. The frequency and severity of pain should then be determined by administering a PD Pain Scale test. Levodopa and other PD meds are used to treat many types of Parkinson’s pain. Physical therapy is the most common non-drug treatment. DBS often helps reduce pain. Massage, therapeutic ultrasound, heat and/or ice, stretching and strengthening exercises, yoga, and aerobic activities are additional methods used to reduce pain. None of these therapies is a cure-all. Where there is advanced Parkinson’s there is pain.
PD pain tests are available on the web. Worth taking to get an objective evaluation if you have pain.
