Characterizing Parkinson's Disease-Associated Pain in Native Patients with Malayalam Version of the King's Parkinson's Disease Pain Scale.

Background and objectives: Pain is an important non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD) and is often under-recognized. Pain is also a symptom frequently reported by non-PD elderly subjects. The King's Parkinson's Disease Pain Scale (KPPS) is a valid tool to characterize and quantify pain in PD and has been translated into several languages.

Methods: We translated KPPS to Malayalam for native patients with PD and examined the pain characteristics in consecutive patients. Correlations with comprehensive disease-specific rating scales, including the Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) and the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS), were explored. A group of age- and gender-matched subjects without PD were interviewed using KPPS to examine how the pain reported by the non-PD aging population is different from that in PD.

Results: In this study, 82% of patients with PD reported at least one type of pain, compared to 31.3% of age- and gender-matched control subjects (P < 0.001). KPPS total scores (18.2 ± 14.0 vs. 1.8 ± 3.2; P < 0.001) and all the individual domain scores were significantly higher in patients. Pain scores correlated with age in control subjects (R = 0.46, P < 0.001), but not in patients; females reported more pain in both groups. Patients' pain scores were higher in the postural instability and gait difficulty subtype and showed significant correlations with MDS-UPDRS and NMSS scores.

Conclusions: Pain is a prevalent symptom in PD and differs from the pain reported by a non-PD aging population. The Malayalam version of KPPS is a valid tool to characterize pain in native, Malayalam-speaking patients.