Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: This study was performed to determine the impact on quality of life and sleep impairment of painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (PDPN).

Research design and method: The study pool consisted of 200 randomly selected peoples with type 2 diabetic peripheral neuropathy. PDPN was diagnosed using visual analogue scales (VAS) and medical history. The patients were asked to answer the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF), Medical Outcomes Study Sleep (MOS-Sleep) Scale, EuroQol (EQ-5D), and VAS and estimate the quality of life in people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Results: Among the patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (n=200), 82 (41%) were diagnosed with PDPN. PDPN was independently associated with age, fasting plasma glucose, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and previous cerebrovascular events. All pain severity and interference measures were higher in patients with PDPN than those in patients with painless DPN and patients with PDPN reported more impaired sleep and lower EQ-5D and VAS scores. 200 patients had DPN and Pain Severity Index and pain interference items such as general activity, mood, walking, normal work, relationship, sleep, and enjoyment of life in BPI–DPN were higher in patients with painful DPN compared to those in patients with painless DPN. MOS 6 items-sleep adequacy, respiratory problem during sleep, sleep initiation problem, sleep maintenance problem, and somnolence-sleep scale were lower in patient with painful DPN than painless DPN. EQ-5D index were lower in patients with painful DPN compared to those in patients with painless DPN.

Conclusions: Patients with painful DPN have greater discomfort during daily activities and sleep, and reduced QoL compared to patients with painless DPN. This study provides on the extent of the impact of pain on QoL in patients with painful DPN and physicians should carefully consider pain symptoms in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.