SPECIAL ARTICLES  THE ITALIAN CONSENSUS CONFERENCE ON PAIN IN NEUROREHABILITATION - PART I Free

European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 2016 October;52(5):717-29

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Diagnosing and assessing pain in neurorehabilitation: from translational research to the clinical setting. Evidence and recommendations from the Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation

Carlo A. PORRO ¹, Giorgio SANDRINI ^{2, 3}, Andrea TRUINI ⁴, Valeria TUGNOLI ⁵, Enrico ALFONSI ^{2, 3}, Laura BERLIOCCHI ⁶, Carlo CACCIATORI ⁷, Silvia LA CESA ⁴, Francesca MAGRINELLI ⁷, Paola SACERDOTE ⁸, Massimiliano VALERIANI ⁹, Stefano TAMBURIN ⁷ ✉

¹ Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy; ² “C. Mondino” National Institute of Neurology Foundation, Scientific Institute for Research and Care (IRCCS), Pavia, Italy; ³ Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; ⁴ Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; ⁵ Neurological Unit, University Hospital of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy; ⁶ Department of Health Sciences, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy; ⁷ Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; ⁸ Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; ⁹ Division of Neurology, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Scientific Institute for Research and Care (IRCCS), Rome, Italy

Pain is very common in neurorehabilitation, where it may be a target for treatment and have a negative effect on rehabilitation procedures and outcomes. Promising preliminary preclinical data support certain therapeutic approaches to pain, but there is a strong need of adequate preclinical models, experimental settings, outcome measures, and biomarkers that are more relevant for pain within the neurorehabilitation field. Data on the diagnosis and assessment of nociceptive and neuropathic pain (NP) are very scanty in neurorehabilitation, but those from other contexts can be adapted and translated to this specific setting. The Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation (ICCPN) has searched and evaluated existing evidence on animal models for the treatment of pain, definition and diagnostic criteria for nociceptive and NP, screening tools and questionnaires, along with diagnostic, clinical and instrumental techniques to distinguish nociceptive from NP and, more generally, to assess pain in the field of neurorehabilitation. The present ICCPN recommendations provide information on the relevance of current preclinical models, and may be helpful in ameliorating pain diagnosis and assessment, which are prerequisites for better application and tailoring of current pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. They may also be useful for future studies aimed at filling the gaps in the current knowledge of these topics.