Reason Behind Different Kinds of Pain in Osteoarthritis Discovered

Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. It affects more than 300 million people.

It results in substantial pain, functional limitations, and disability in patients. The pain patients experience also changes over time.

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‘Altered nervous system mechanisms may account for the differences in pain experienced by patients with knee osteoarthritis. Understanding these mechanisms could be beneficial as health care providers can personalize pain management to each patient.’
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People initially experience pain while jogging or climbing the stairs. Eventually, the pain becomes more persistent, and it can flare unpredictably.

The researchers reviewed pain experience data from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study in about 2,794 older adults with knee arthritis or at risk of knee arthritis.

The researchers found that people who are more sensitized to pain were most likely to suffer from unpredictable and constant pain.

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The researchers also identified key neurobiological mechanisms that affect the pain experience. These mechanisms not only affect the severity of the pain but whether the pain is constant or intermittent and also whether the pain is unpredictable.

Healthcare providers can begin to personalize pain management as the different mechanisms are understood.

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Personalized pain management would improve the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, where all patients are started with the same treatment and then shifted to other treatments if the first approach did not work.

“By understanding these mechanisms, determining ways to identify those mechanisms in the clinic, and developing treatments to target those mechanisms, we can provide better management options to the millions of people worldwide with osteoarthritis,” said Dr. Neogi.

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Source-Medindia