Prevalence of chronic pain and its impact on health-related quality of life in stroke survivors

Objectives: To document the prevalence of chronic pain and to evaluate the effect of pain on quality of life (QOL) in patients 6 months or more after a stroke. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Outpatient clinic of a rehabilitation center. Participants: One hundred seven stroke patients (68 men, 39 women; mean age, 60.9y) attending the outpatient clinic of a rehabilitation center. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Patients were interviewed on pain, QOL, mood, and functional status by using the short form of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Beck Depression Inventory, and Modified Barthel Index (MBI), respectively. Results: Self-reported chronic pain was present in 45 patients (42%), with 32 having musculoskeletal pain and 13 central poststroke pain. It was significantly more common in patients with a shorter poststroke duration (P=.025), but was not related to the nature of stroke (infarct or bleed), age, gender, presence of depression, and MBI score. There was no difference in the SF-36 scores between patients with and without pain except for the domain of bodily pain. When compared with patients with musculoskeletal pain, patients with central poststroke pain were more likely to have sensory impairments (P=.009), higher pain scores on the question "least pain in the past 24 hours" of the BPI (P=.036), and lower scores on the vitality domain of the SF-36 (P=.042). Conclusion: Pain is common in chronic stroke patients, and it does not appear to have a significant effect on patients' QOL.