01705nas a2200193   4500000000100000008004100001100001300042700001400055700001600069700001400085700001300099700001800112700001600130700001200146700001800158245008800176520123300264022001401497       2018                            d1 aGiesel L1 aPitta IJR1 aSilveira RC1 aAndrade L1 aVital RT1 aCosta Nery JA1 aHacker MAVB1 aSarno E1 aRodrigues MMJ00aClinical and neurophysiological features of leprosy patients with neuropathic pain.3 a<p>Neural pain is a frequent symptom in leprosy disease. There is a paucity of data regarding neural pain diagnostics resulting in common prescriptive errors when neuritis is confused with neuropathic or mixed nociceptive-neuropathic pain. The present study identified important demographic, clinical, and neurophysiological features of 42 leprosy neuropathy patients presenting neuropathic pain (NP). During routine evaluations, patients were selected asking if they had ever experienced neural pain. Data analyses of their pain characteristics, clinical examination results, and both the Douleur Neuropathique 4 Questionnaire and Hamilton Depression Scale scores were used to classify these patients. The most common word they used to describe the sensation of pain for 25 (60%) of these patients was "burning." In the early stages of the disease and before leprosy diagnosis, 19 (45%) had already complained about NP and leprosy treatment was unable to prevent its occurrence in 15 (36%). Leprosy reactions, considered NP risk factors, occurred in 32 (76%) cases. Knowledge of typical NP characteristics could be used to develop more effective therapeutic approaches for a notoriously difficult-to-treat pain condition.</p>
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