Preceding pain and development of additional pain in CRPS patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Preceding pain and development of additional pain in patients with complex regional pain syndrome
IRAS ID
342590
Contact name
Andreas Goebel
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Walton Centre
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 1 days
Research summary
Complex regional pain syndrome is a painful condition affecting a limb which can have a profound impact on a patient’s quality of life (Bean et al., 2014). Typically developing after trauma to a limb, a patient may experience a range of autonomic, motor and sensory changes, with the predominant feature being persistent disproportionate pain (Goebel, 2011). The aetiology of CRPS remains unexplained.
Additional pain in patients with CRPS is a phenomenon frequently encountered in anecdotal clinical practice at the Walton Centre, a tertiary centre for pain management. This includes chronic widespread pain such as fibromyalgia syndrome, as well as regional pains that may or may not resemble CRPS-type pain. Some patients with CRPS have been observed to report either regional or widespread pain that preceded their CRPS; others report additional chronic pains developing afterwards.
A previous study done at the Walton Centre, published in 2014, found that of a cohort of 190 patients with CRPS, 11% also had chronic widespread pain/fibromyalgia syndrome (Birley at al., 2014). All of these patients reported their CWP/FMS to be an important factor affecting their quality of life, in addition to their CRPS pain. Strikingly, over 30% of the cohort reported they had experienced other than everyday pains in the affected limb before the CRPS trigger.
This 2014 study forms the basis of our research. Our new research will utilize the centre’s CRPS patient database containing >800 patients first seen in outpatient clinic by Walton Centre Pain consultants between 2007 and 2023. They will be approached and asked, using a questionnaire, in more detail about their pain before CRPS onset, and additional pain after CRPS onset. This will give us the opportunity to expand on previous knowledge by using a large volume of data and by gaining more precise data using dedicated questionnaires.
This study aims to raise awareness of the potential for patients with CRPS to have pre-existing pain at the CRPS-affected site or elsewhere, as well as additional pain after the onset of CRPS, and to describe the nature of these pains. Furthermore it might encourage earlier detection of additional pain, and prompt early appropriate management and further questioning into possible shared aetiologies of CRPS and additional pain phenomena.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EM/0233
Date of REC Opinion
29 Oct 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion