Frequency of Central Post-Stroke Pain and Its Impact on Quality of Life

Objective This study aims to determine the frequency of central post-stroke pain (CPSP) in a patient population with stroke as well as investigating the relationship between CPSP and patients’ clinical/demographic characteristics, pain intensity, functional status, and quality of life. Methods The study included 150 patients, who had a stroke and were aged 18 years and above. Demographic data of the patients, time since onset, and etiology, localization of the cerebral lesion, affected side, ambulation status, and Brunnstrom stages were recorded. Douleur neuropathique 4 questions (DN4) were used to assess the presence of CPSP. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used for pain intensity, functional ambulation scale (FAS) was used for ambulation status, Barthel Index (BI) was used for functional status, and the stroke impact scale (SIS) was used for quality of life. Results The mean age of the patients was 67±11.5 years, 54.7% was male, and 45.3% was female. CPSP was evaluated in 15.3% of patients. There was no significant difference between the affected side of the body and age, gender, time since onset, BI scores, and ambulation status of patients according to their CPSP status (p>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between SIS sub-parameter scores and the presence of CPSP (p>0.05). In correlation analysis, a significant relationship was found between Barthel Indexes and all SIS domains except memory and emotion (p <0.01). Conclusion CPSP can be seen with varying frequency in stroke patients. In our study, the negative effect of the presence of CPSP on quality of life was not demonstrated.