Creating a tool to improve personalisation of osteoarthritis knee pain treatment.
What is it about?
We found that 8 characteristics of osteoarthritis knee pain were related the central nervous system (brain or spinal cord). These characteristics were anxiety; depression; other painful areas; how one thinks about pain; how pain affects attention to a task; sleep disturbance; fatigue; and pain that feels tingly or electrical in nature.
Why is it important?
Through selecting 8 questions representing these characteristics we have created a new questionnaire to help identify people whose pain is driven by the central nervous system. Clinicians can use this questionnaire to help identify individuals whose central pain mechanisms play a significant role in driving pain. It will help determine whether current or new treatments that target central pain mechanisms, might improve a specific individual’s knee pain.