Background

Pain is an important symptom in Huntington’s disease (HD), however, not systematically studied and understood. The objective of the current study is to assess the prevalence of pain, pain interference in daily activities, painful conditions, analgesic use and the severity of the pain burden across different disease stages and ‘Age at symptom Onset’ groups. Additionally, the association between pain and disease burden was investigated.

Methods

A cross-sectional analysis was conducted within two large data sets, which included different types of pain scales. Multivariable logistic regression analyses and analyses of variance were performed to compare the pain levels with those in the general population. The analyses were adjusted for sex and age. Locally Estimated Scatterplot Smoothing was used to test the association between pain and the HD pathology score: a measure of disease burden.

Results

The mean prevalence of pain in the HD population was 40% and for pain interference around 35% in both data sets. Patients in the early, middle and late stage of HD experience more pain burden compared with what is reported in patients with chronic pain (p<0.01). A positive and significant association was demonstrated between pain and disease burden. Patients in late stage HD with pain use significantly less analgesics compared with the general population (5% vs 13%, respectively (p<0.01)).

Conclusions

Pain is a prevalent and important symptom in HD. Severe pain burden in the HD population is present and positively associated with disease burden. Risk for undertreatment with analgesics is nevertheless present. Awareness of pain in HD needs to be increased, both clinically and scientifically.

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