Arch Neurosci. 2017 July; 4(3):e13971. Published online 2017 July 31. doi: 10.5812/archneurosci.13971. Research Article Evaluation of Different Types of Pain in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury Seyede Zahra Emami Razavi, 1 Shahrbanoo Kazemi, 1 Mohaddeseh Azadvari, 1,* and Mahsa Ghajarzadeh 2 1 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran * Corresponding author: Mohaddeseh Azadvari, End of Keshavarz Blv, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran, Iran. Tel: +98-2161192291, Fax: +98-2166581615, E-mail: drazadvari@yahoo.com Received 2017 May 23; Accepted 2017 July 22. Abstract Background: Pain is an unpleasant sensory experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. In patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), pain may occur as a result of damage to the spinal cord, or it may occur due to damage to other areas of the body at the time of injury. It is also common for many individuals with SCI to experience different types of chronic pain. Sometimes the pain is very severe and may have a great impact on daily living. This study evaluates the prevalence and different types of pain in Iranian SCI patients. Methods: Eighty four SCI patients were included in the present study based on an inclusion criteria. An expert physiatrist evaluated the patients and filled demographic questionnaires. After, the patients filled the short-form McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2). Results: The mean age of patients was 34.9 (SD: 10.9) years and the mean duration of spinal cord injury as well as duration of having pain were 2.57 (SD: 2.32) and 1.81 (SD: 1.96) years, respectively. The most prevalent type of pain was tingling (84.5%), hot-burning and shooting pain (65.7%), as well as cramping pain (63.1%). The mean of pain in the visual analogue scale (VAS) is 5.69 (SD: 2.21). Conclusions: Pain is one of the most debilitating complications among SCI patients. Heeding to the patients’ pain, it’s appropriate and precise diagnosis, and timely treatment can improve the quality of life as well as their more efficient return to social activities among these patients. Keywords: Spinal Cord Injury, Pain, Neuropathic Pain 1. Background Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a debilitating damage, which affects various sensory-motor systems and leads to limb paralysis (1). This condition leads to lifelong loss of func- tion, autonomic disturbances and reduced quality of life, as well as increased morbidity and mortality. Patients with SCI suffer a number of complications. One of the most prevalent of these complications is pain. Pain is an un- pleasant feeling when it turns chronic; it can have debil- itating effects on different aspects of the patients’ life in- cluding their independence, mental health, and ability to return to work or normal life (1-4). Pain in these patients commonly starts within the first 6 months of their life. Further, this moves toward turning into a chronic pain in many of these patients. The prevalence of pain in these patients has been esti- mated between 39% to 90% (5). This wide range of pain has probably been due to various criterias considered for the patients’ pain in different studies. Different types of pain have been observed in these pa- tients. The pain might be caused due to injury to the spinal cord or other parts. The pain in these patients is usually categorized into 2 groups, neuropathic (arising from nervous system struc- tures such as spine and brain) and nociceptive (arising from somatic and organs structures). Neuropathic pain was classified at level and below level in these patients. At-level SCI (neuropathic) pain refers to neuropathic pain perceived in a segmental pattern any- where within the dermatome representing the NLI and/or within the 3 dermatomes below this level and not in any lower dermatomes (6). A necessary condition for classi- fying a pain as at-level SCI pain is that a lesion or disease must affect the spinal cord or nerve roots, and the pain is believed to arise as a result of this damage. As previ- ously mentioned pain may occur at areas with normal, re- duced, or numb sensation. Below-level SCI (neuropathic) pain or below-level spinal cord pain refers to neuropathic pain that is perceived more than 3 dermatomes below the dermatome representing the NLI. It might or might not be perceived within the dermatome representing the NLI and the 3 dermatomes below the NLI (6). A necessary condition for classifying a pain as below-level SCI pain is that a lesion or disease must affect the spinal cord and that the pain is thought to arise as a result of this damage. In some cases, Copyright © 2017, Archives of Neuroscience. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.