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. 2019 Oct 18:12:2925-2932.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S212422. eCollection 2019.

Chronic Pain And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Women With Autism And/Or ADHD: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Karin Asztély  1 , Svenny Kopp  2 , Christopher Gillberg  2 , Margda Waern  3 , Stefan Bergman  1
Affiliations

Chronic Pain And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Women With Autism And/Or ADHD: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Karin Asztély et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of chronic pain and its association with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a group of women, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in childhood.

Patients and methods: Prospective longitudinal 16-19 years follow-up study of 100 Swedish females diagnosed with ASD and/or ADHD in childhood/adolescence. Seventy-seven of the women were included in the current sub-study, using validated measures of pain perception and quality of life.

Results: A large majority of the women (76.6%) reported chronic pain. HRQoL was low overall and lower still for those reporting chronic pain. Women with ADHD who had ongoing treatment with stimulants reported a significant lower prevalence of chronic widespread pain (CWP) than those not treated.

Conclusion: Comorbidity with chronic pain is common in women with ASD and/or ADHD and important to address in the clinic since it is associated with an already low HRQoL. Treatment for ADHD might reduce the pain in some cases.

Keywords: attention deficit disorder; autism spectrum disorder; female; girls; stimulants; widespread pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pain type distribution (NCP, CRP, CWP) at follow-up by main diagnosis (ASD, ADHD, Other) at inclusion in childhood, presented as number of individuals.
Figure 2
Figure 2
SF-36 scores for the different pain groups at follow up for all 77 women, with Swedish norm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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