Psychometric assessment of chronic pain syndrome in juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Abstract

Background. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic rheumatic disease of childhood. Chronic pain is one of the most frequent and difficult to objectively assess symptom of JIA. The influence of psychosocial factors on the severity of pain complicates the objective assessment of pain syndrome in JIA, necessary to assess the control of the disease and raises the question of the possible use of psychological questionnaires to objectify pain in patients with JIA.
 Aim: to assess the intensity of pain syndrome, the level of social disadaptations, description of sensory and affective components of pain in patients with JIA, depending on the activity of the disease and the presence or absence of chronic pain syndrome.
 Materials and methods. 147 school-age patients with verified diagnosis of JIA were examined. All patients included in the study underwent a traditional rheumatological examination with the assessment of disease activity according to the criteria of the American College of rheumatologists for pediatric patients. The severity of pain syndrome on a visual analog scale (VAS) from 0 to 10 was determined separately by patients and their parents, patients independently filled in the Von Korff Questionnaire and the McGill pain questionnaire.
 Results. There were no differences in the severity of pain syndrome between patients with signs of arthritis activity and without signs of arthritis activity according to VAS, Van Korff and McGill questionnaires.
 Conclusion. On the example of the studied patients, it is not possible to link chronic pain syndrome in JIA with the activity of arthritis. It is necessary to further study the possible causes of chronic pain syndrome in children with JIA, including anxiety and depressive disorders for a better understanding of the nature of chronic pain and search for additional methods of its treatment.