Pain is a non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD) that is often neglected due to its high prevalence in both the PD and the normal elderly population. The aims of this cross-sectional study were to establish the prevalence of pain, investigate its clinical predictors and analyze physical experiences of pain as described by PD patients.

A total of 121 patients diagnosed with PD were included. The patients underwent a neurological examination and a structured interview and completed questionnaires focusing on clinical types and physical experiences of pain. Logistic regressions were used to analyze possible predictors.

Pain was reported by 80 (66%) patients with a mean age at PD diagnosis of 67.26±11.43 years. The most common clinical types of pain experienced by the patients were dystonic pain (48%), paresthesia/neuropathic pain (36%) and musculoskeletal pain (28%). The PD patients described their physical experience of pain as aching (46%), a feeling of tension (18%), sharp pain (12%), deep pain (12%) and dull pain (11%). Patients with PD affecting the right side of the body were four times more likely to report pain on the right side of the body; however, no such relation was found for the left side of the body. A higher UPDRS-III scale score and longer PD duration reduced the likelihood of patients reporting dull pain. The presence of paresthesia/neuropathic pain was shown to decrease the likelihood of patients reporting sharp pain. No significant relationships were found between the magnitude of pain and gender, age at PD diagnosis, PD duration, UPDRS-III score, or Hoehn and Yahr stage of PD. Although 40% of the PD patients felt that medication had a (direct) effect on their pain, no relationship could be found between pain severity and PD medication.