Quantitative Sensory Testing Discriminates Central Sensitization Inventory Scores in Participants with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: An Exploratory Study (original) (raw)

Chronic musculoskeletal pain affects an estimated one in three individuals worldwide, and is the leading cause of global disability. 1 Currently, the majority of treatments for musculoskeletal pain provide small effects when viewed across a large number of individuals. 2 One reason for this may be related to differences in the underlying mechanisms perpetuating chronic pain, which would suggest that not all treatments will affect pain equally. The ability to distinguish patients by their specific pain mechanisms may allow for more targeted treatment approaches, 2-4 and thus reduce the global burden of pain. Several pain mechanism classification schemes have been proposed to improve upon the management of various musculoskeletal conditions. 5-7 Acceptable reliability and validity has been reported for classification schemes that divide patients with musculoskeletal pain into nociceptive, peripheral neuropathic, or central sensitization (CS) categories. 5,6,8 Although identification of CS in humans is not