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. 2021 Feb;42(2):389-397.
doi: 10.1007/s10072-020-04890-9. Epub 2020 Nov 17.

Life with chronic pain during COVID-19 lockdown: the case of patients with small fibre neuropathy and chronic migraine

Monica Consonni  1 , Alessandra Telesca  1 , Licia Grazzi  1 , Daniele Cazzato  2 , Giuseppe Lauria  3   4
Affiliations

Life with chronic pain during COVID-19 lockdown: the case of patients with small fibre neuropathy and chronic migraine

Monica Consonni et al. Neurol Sci. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed at investigating the impact of COVID-19-related distress on patients with chronic pain, highlighting the effects of changes in individual habits and public health care reconfiguration on physical and psychological health.

Methods: During the pandemic, 80 participants (25 patients with small fibre neuropathy (SFN), 42 patients with chronic migraine (CM) and 13 patients' healthy family members (HFM)) were asked to evaluate their COVID-19 complains, changes in habits and clinical management, behaviour, mood, loneliness, quality of life (QoL), physical and mental health and coping strategies. Data were analysed by Spearman rho correlations and Mann-Whitney U tests.

Results: Patients had lower QoL, lower physical health and higher catastrophizing attitude towards pain than HFM. During the pandemic, SFN patients referred greater decline in clinical symptoms, worries about contagion and discomfort for disease management changes than CM patients. In the SFN group, the higher levels of disability were associated with suffering from changes in neurologist-patient relationship. CM patients complained of agitation/anxiety that was related to feelings of loneliness, depressive mood and catastrophism.

Discussion: Despite similar complains of change in habits and worries about COVID-19 pandemic, SFN and CM patients had distinct reactions. In SFN patients, pandemic distress impacted on physical health with worsening of clinical conditions, especially suffering from changes in their care. In CM patients, pandemic distress affected behaviour, mainly with psychological frailty. This suggests the need to customize public health care for patients with distinct chronic pain conditions.

Keywords: COVID-19 distress; Catastrophism; Chronic migraine; Chronic pain; Quality of life; Small fibre neuropathy.

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Conflict of interest statement

M.C., A.T. and D.C. declare no conflict of interest. L.G. has received advisory and lecture fees from Allergan SpA, Electrocore L.L.C., Novartis A.G., Ely Lilly none related to the current work; G.L. received advisory and lecture fees from Biogen, Vertex, CSL Behring, Astellas none related to the current work. Funders were not involved in any part of the design, execution or interpretation of this study. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

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