Pain
Pain is a common symptom in MS; appearing in 55% of patients at some point of their disease process, especially as time passes. It is strong and debilitating and has a profound effect in the quality of life and mental health of the sufferer. It usually appears after a lesion to the ascending or descending tracts that control the transmission of painful stimulus, such as the anterolateral system, but many other causes are also possible. Most frequent pains reported are headaches (40%), dysesthetic limb pain (19%), back pain (17%), and painful spasms (11%).
Acute pain is mainly due to optic neuritis, trigeminal neuralgia, Lhermitte's sign or dysesthesias. Subacute pain is usually secondary to the disease and can be a consequence of spending too much time in the same position, urinary retention, or infected skin ulcers. Chronic pain is common and harder to treat.
Read more about this topic: Multiple Sclerosis Signs And Symptoms
Famous quotes containing the word pain:
“This last pain for the damned the Fathers found:
“They knew the bliss with which they were not crowned.””
—William Empson (1906–1984)
“There was a faith-healer of Deal
Who said, “Although pain isn’t real,
If I sit on a pin
And it punctures my skin,
I dislike what I don’t think I feel.””
—Anonymous.
“Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria.”
—Naomi Wolf (b. 1962)