Value of quantitative sensory testing in neurological and pain disorders: NeuPSIG consensus Miroslav ‘‘Misha’’ Backonja a,b,⇑ , Nadine Attal c,d , Ralf Baron e , Didier Bouhassira c,d , Mark Drangholt f , Peter J. Dyck g , Robert R. Edwards h , Roy Freeman i , Richard Gracely j , Maija H. Haanpaa k , Per Hansson l , Samar M. Hatem m,n,o , Elena K. Krumova p , Troels S. Jensen q , Christoph Maier r , Gerard Mick s , Andrew S. Rice t,u , Roman Rolke v , Rolf-Detlef Treede w,x,y , Jordi Serra z , Thomas Toelle aa , Valeri Tugnoli ab , David Walk ac , Mark S. Walalce ad , Mark Ware ae , David Yarnitsky af , Dan Ziegler ag a Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA b CRI Lifetree Research, Salt Lake City, UT, USA c INSERM U-987, Centre d’Evaluation et de Traitement de la Douleur, Hôpital Ambroise Paré, APHP, Boulogne-Billancourt, France d Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, France e Division of Neurological Pain Research and Therapy, Department of Neurology, Universitatsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany f Dental Public Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA g Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, USA h Department of Anesthesiology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA i Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA j Center for Neurosensory Disorders, University of North Carolina, CB No. 7280, 3330 Thurston Bldg, Chapel Hill, NC, USA k Department of Neurosurgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland l Clinical Pain Research, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden m Clinic of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Brugmann University Hospital, 4 place Van Gehuchten, B-1020 Brussels, Belgium n Institute of Neuroscience, 52, Avenue E. Mounier, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium o Université Catholique de Louvain, Leuven, Belgium p Department of Neurology, Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil GmbH, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany q Danish Pain Research Center and Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark r Department of Pain Medicine, Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil GmbH Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany s Center for Pain Evaluation and Treatment, University Neurological Hospital, Lyon, France t Imperial College London, UK u Chelsea and Westminster Hospital London, UK v Department of Palliative Medicine, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn, Germany w Department of Neurology, MC Mutual, Barcelona, Spain x Neuroscience Technologies, Barcelona, Spain y Neuroscience Technologies, London, UK z Department of Neurology, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany aa Chair of Neurophysiology, Center for Biomedicine and Medical Technology Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany ab Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, S. Anna University Hospital of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy ac University of Minnesota, 425 Delaware St SE, MMC 295, Minneapolis, MN, USA ad Department of Anesthesiology, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA ae Department of Family Medicine and Department of Anesthesia, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada af Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel ag Institute for Clinical Diabetology, German Diabetes Center at Heinrich Heine University, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research and Department of Metabolic Diseases, University Hospital, Düsseldorf, Germany Sponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are disclosed at the end of this article. article info Article history: Received 18 October 2012 Received in revised form 21 April 2013 Accepted 29 May 2013 abstract Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is a psychophysical method used to quantify somatosensory function in response to controlled stimuli in healthy subjects and patients. Although QST shares similarities with the quantitative assessment of hearing or vision, which is extensively used in clinical practice and research, it has not gained a large acceptance among clinicians for many reasons, and in significant part because of the lack of information about standards for performing QST, its potential utility, and interpretation of results. 0304-3959/$36.00 Ó 2013 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2013.05.047 ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin- Madison, Madison, WI, USA. E-mail address: backonja@neurology.wisc.edu (M.M. Backonja). PAIN Ò 154 (2013) 1807–1819 www.elsevier.com/locate/pain