2003 Director's Summary Synopsis

MEASURING SENSATION AND TREATING NEUROPATHIC PAIN
Alberto Martinez-Arizala, M.D. • Eva Widerstrom-Noga, Ph.D.

Sensation is perhaps one of the most complex senses and most difficult to measure. As promising new therapies for treating SCI arise, it will be important to have accurate methods to measure sensation in animal experiments as well as human trials. In the opinion of Dr. Alberto Martinez-Arizala, a clinical neurologist and member of the pain research team at The Miami Project, standard tests for measuring sensation after SCI lack sophistication. In his review article, he describes the current sensory testing methods and makes suggestions for improvements and additions to the battery of tests to measure pain and sensation.

In addition to the need for more accurate sensory tests, there is a need for improved treatments for pain. Pain relief for people with SCI-related neuropathic pain is still inadequate. In an effort to develop better treatments, Miami Project clinical researchers have been interested in determining what interventions people with chronic SCI pain actually utilize and whether there is an association between the type of treatment and the specific type of pain.

In a recent study, Dr. Eva Widerstrom-Noga surveyed a group of people with SCI and found the most common treatments they used were massage, opioids, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Overall, 50% percent of those who received physical therapy type treatments indicated their pain was “considerably reduced” or they were “pain free” while those who took prescription medications reported more intense pain with neuropathic characteristics. The results of this study confirm that prescription medication did not effectively relieve SCI-related pain and points to the need for additional research in treatment strategies that are tailored to various types of pain.

Synopsis Publications

 Martinez-Arizala A (2003) Methods to measure sensory function in humans versus animals. J Rehabil Res Dev 40 (Suppl 1): 35-39

 Widerström-Noga EG, Turk DC (2003) Types and effectiveness of treatments used by people with chronic pain associated with spinal cord injuries: Influence of pain and psychosocial characteristics. Spinal Cord 41:600-609.