” I got bone spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle.” ~ unknown
Neck pain is an extremely common problem which afflicts all of us who suffer from Parkinson’s disease at one time or another. Also is a frequent source of disability for those who have cervical torticollis, and generalized dystonia independent of etiology.
The cause in both cases is increase axial rigidity (stiffness of any of the skeletal muscles that support the head or trunk). The neck joints are on a pivot which allow for sideways movements while the fact that the head rest on the atlas (named after Greek god “holding the weight of the world” while sitting in second vertebra called the axis allows for front and back movements. …
From the moment we awake until we go to bed these muscles are constantly being pushed in all directions. It’s no wonder that as we age they begin to deteriorate. Now add a chronic neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s or dystonia independent of cause and we are bound to have pain as our head and neck muscles are trying hard to compensate for abnormal posturing all throughout the day.
Pain is believed to occur in 30-50% (can go up to 85% when all causes of pain are taken into account) of all patients with PD. Although extremely common, pain remains under-recognized as being one of the non- motor symptoms of PD. The important thing to remember is that pain can appear any time in the course of the disease and even be the presenting symptoms of Parkinson’s, as it was for me.
Predisposing factors for pain in Parkinson’s are:
- Age
- Gender- more common in women
- Duration of disease- worst as Parkinson’s disease advances due to increased rigidity of neck; but also to wearing “off” causing dystonia’s and motor fluctuations causing dyskinesia’s.
Pain is frequently under treated in the settings of both PD and dystonia but even more so in the Parkinson’s population, this is why I felt the need to talk about it today.
Although, pain in dystonia is more frequently accepted and recognized by MDS other physicians are not as attuned to this problem. Therefore, cervical pain in dystonia is still poorly managed and treated; even though 75% of patients with dystonia complain of some type of pain with 7/10 sufferers rate their pain moderate to severe. In fact when cervical dystonia sufferers were compared to PD patients in QOL (quality of life) they scored just as poorly. Yet, these patients scored lower in physical limitations than PD despite having higher physical function scores.
So, we have a whole population of over 1.5 million people living in pain and unable to get on with their lives and at times not even be able to do basic daily activities of living. This in my opinion is simply unacceptable and we have to be more proactive in our care advocating for better treatment. This entails going to the doctor as soon as pain begins and not wait so cause can be found and appropriate treatment instituted.
Poorly controlled PD & dystonia symptoms as well as over medication in PD patients is the number one cause for cervical pain in my experience often leading to severe spondylosis (narrowing of canal) and herniated discs of the neck.
Cervical Dystonia more common:
- In women
- In the US 30/100,000> Europe 1-2/100,000
- Ethnicity- Jewish Ashkenazi
The key to successful treatment of neck pain in both groups is rapid diagnosis along with immediate, effective treatment to prevent acute pain from becoming chronic and affecting a person’s day to day living.
The reason for advocating rapid effective treatment is to prevent brain changes from setting in; with chronic pain the chemical composition of the brain alters as well as it remaps itself after experiencing prolonged pain. The pain center in the brain moves and expands out of the usual sensory centers (parietal lobe) to encompass areas of memory, and emotion causing people to become irritable, quick-tempered, and impatient. This is because chronic pain increases the threshold of our ability to focus (trouble multi-tasking) on every day activities. This transformation occurs because the brain’s area responsible for processing emotion begin to deteriorate at a faster pace than normal. We then expand so much energy trying to deal with pain that even a minor incident like being caught in traffic for 5 minutes can set us off!
This in turn can lead people to go in search of solitude manifesting as isolation creating a vicious cycle of depression, hopelessness and pain intensification.
Many years of experience have shown me that the best way to combat pain is to bombard it with whatever necessary to halt the process before it becomes an insidious recurring problem.
This is the one exception to the rule of more is not always better!
Unlike other symptoms of PD where we don’t want to just keep adding medications, in pain particularly those caused by nervous system e.g. radicular pain has to be stopped before the spine and brain have a chance to rewire itself?
Cervical pain treatment:
- The first thing is prevention! it is always easier to prevent than try to fix a problem.
- Second, treat acute pain still easier to treat with less disturbance of a person’s QOL.
- Third, treat chronic pain appropriately to break cycle.
Effective interdisciplinary treatment is necessary to efficiently reduce pain in our lives. This includes :
- physical therapy
- occupational therapy
- acupuncture
- massage therapy
- Botox (dysport, myobloc)
- exercise
- balanced diet
- sleep regimen
- adjust dopamine medications
- Bio-feedback/counseling
- DBS
- Neck surgeries when necessary or as last resort-e.g. laminectomies
- prescription pain medications :
- anti-seizure-e.g. Neurontin, Topamax, Tegretol, Keppra;
- anti-depression-e.g. Elavil, Cymbalta, Effexor;
- anti-anxiety-e.g. Klonopin;
- muscle relaxants-e.g. baclofen, dantrolene, zanaflex, relafen;
- topical anesthetics-e.g. Lidoderm patches, Flector patches;
- injection- e.g. steroids and Toradol or invasive epidurals, nerve block baclofen pump, Medtronic’s spinal cord stimulator (Neurostimulation);
- anti-inflammatories-e.g. Celebrex, Mobic, ultram, ultracet; and occasional narcotics -e.g. vicodin, hydrocodone (as acute treatment or short course to break cycle in chronic pain -do not recommend long term use because will worsen symptoms of PD and interfere with medications used for treatment of both PD & dystonia; should not be necessary in most cases if above followed properly)
sources:
defeatparkinsons 