Quantitative sensory testing and pain tolerance in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease compared to healthy control subjects

Christina Jensen-Dahm, Mads U Werner, Jørgen B Dahl, Troels Staehelin Jensen, Martin Ballegaard, Anne-Mette Hejl, Gunhild Waldemar

55 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) report pain less frequently than their cognitively intact peers. It has been hypothesized that pain processing is altered in AD. The aim of this study was to investigate agreement and reliability of 3 pain sensitivity tests and to examine pain threshold and tolerance in patients with AD. We examined 29 patients with mild to moderate AD and 29 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects with quantitative sensory testing, ie, assessments of detection threshold (warmth detection threshold [WDT]) and pain threshold (heat pain threshold [HPT], pressure algometry, cold pressor test), and assessments of tolerance (pressure algometry, cold pressor test). All procedures were done twice on day 1, 1hour apart, and repeated on day 2. We found no difference between groups for WDT (patient vs control subjects: mean [95% confidence interval]: 35.5°C [33.4°C to 37.6°C] vs 35.4°C [34.3°C to 36.5°C], P=.8) or HPT (41.2°C [40.0°C to 42.4°C] vs 42.3°C [41.1°C to 43.5°C], P=.24). We observed comparable thresholds for pressure algometry (median [25% to 75% interquartile range]: 120kPa [100 to 142kPa] vs 131kPa [113 to 192kPa], P=.10), but significantly lower tolerance in AD patients (213kPa [188 to 306kPa] vs 289kPa [262 to 360kPa], P=.008). No differences were found for the cold pressor test. The study demonstrated good replicability of the sensory testing data with comparable data variability, for both groups, which supports the use of these methods in studies of patients with mild to moderate AD. Contrary to previous studies, we observed a reduced pain tolerance in patients with mild to moderate AD, which suggests that the reduced report of pain cannot be explained by reduced processing of painful stimuli.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftPain
Sider (fra-til)1439-45
ISSN0304-3959
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 1 aug. 2014

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