Neuropathic Pain And Diabetes Mellitus; A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Neuropathic pain is pain that is caused by a disease or lesion and affects the somatosensory system. Almost one-quarter of patients with diabetic neuropathy complain of neuropathic pain. It is necessary to study neuropathic pain among diabetic patients as it is often misdiagnosed and adversely affects the patients.

Aim: To assess the prevalence, risk factors, and characteristics of neuropathic pain among diabetic patients by reviewing studies conducted on this subject.

Methods: An exploration of scientific databases was performed to obtain related articles by using related terms. The definition of eligible studies included original, English, and full-text articles reporting neuropathic pain among diabetic patients and published after 2010.

Results: Eight studies met the inclusion criteria and were involved in the review with a total number of 9957 subjects, of them 9764 were diabetics and 193 were controls. The findings included risk factors, characterization, and impact of neuropathic pain on the patients.

Conclusion: Neuropathic pain is more common among diabetic patients, especially those with T2DM and those with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The risk factors of neuropathic pain, included female gender, duration of diabetes, smoking, older age, certain ethnicity, poor glycemic control, and obesity. Neuropathic pain also adversely affects the quality of life of the patients, and it is more prevalent among lower extremities.