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Neuropathic Pain in the Eyes, Body, and Mouth: Insights from the Sjogren's International Collaborative Clinical Alliance

Neuropathic Pain in the Eyes, Body, and Mouth: Insights from the Sjogren's International Collaborative Clinical Alliance PAIN PRACTICE Gebreegziabher, E. A., Bunya, V. Y., Baer, A. N., Jordan, R. C., Akpek, E. K., Rose-Nussbaumer, J., Criswell, L. A., Shiboski, C. H., Lietman, T. M., Gonzales, J. A. 2021; 21 (6): 630-637

Abstract

To evaluate how ocular, oral, and bodily neuropathic pain symptoms, which characterize small fiber neuropathies, are associated with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) classification based on the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) criteria.Participants enrolled in the Sjögren's International Collaborative Clinical Alliance (SICCA) registry had ocular, rheumatologic, oral, and labial salivary gland (LSG) biopsy examinations, blood and saliva samples collected, and completed questionnaires at baseline. We used mixed effects modeling with age, country, gender, and depression being fixed effects and study site, a random effect, to determine if neuropathic pain indicators (assessed via questionnaires) were associated with being classified as SS.A total of 3,514 participants were enrolled into SICCA, with 1,541 (52.9%) meeting the 2016 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for SS. There was a negative association between being classified as SS and experiencing bodily neuropathic pain features of needle-like pain, prickling/tingling sensation, ocular neuropathic pain of constant burning, and constant light sensitivity, and having a presumptive diagnosis of neuropathic oral pain.We found that those classified as SS had lower scores/reports of painful neuropathies compared with those classified as non-SS. Non-SS patients with dry eye disease or symptoms could benefit from pain assessment as they may experience painful small-fiber neuropathies (SFNs). Pain questionnaires may help identify pain associated with SFNs in patients with SS and non-SS dry eye. Future studies would be helpful to correlate self-reports of pain to objective measures of SFNs in those with SS, non-SS dry eye, and healthy controls.

View details for DOI 10.1111/papr.13000

View details for Web of Science ID 000618891200001

View details for PubMedID 33527744

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10911963