Neuropathic pain: clinical characteristics and diagnostic workup

Neuropathic pain is part of the neurological disease spectrum and may be an expression of severe medical pathology. Painful neuropathies have multiple disguises and may to a certain extent be mimicked by non-neurological pain conditions. Painful neuropathic conditions express themselves with spontaneous and/or abnormal stimulus-evoked pain. The diagnosis of peripheral or central neuropathic pain should be made only when the history and signs are indicative of neuropathy in conjunction with neuro anatomically correlated pain distribution and sensory abnormalities within the area of pain. A future mechanism-based classification of pain has recently been suggested to facilitate the development of mechanism-tailored treatment strategies. This is a sound approach and should be pursued. It is mandatory, however, to retain the traditional organ-based diagnostic work-up, which should precede further in-depth characterization of specific pain mechanisms. Extensive preparatory work is needed on how to link certain symptoms and sips to specific mechanisms, as elucidated from animal studies, before we can introduce mechanism-coupled treatment strategies. (C) 2002 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain.