"My pain feels like..." - Pain perception is as individual as pain patients / A new website helps pain patients to better express and explain how their pain feels like

Aachen (ots) - Pain can appear in many forms and affects people in
different ways. One kind of long-lasting or chronic pain results from
a damaged nerve that sends incorrect pain messages to the brain. This
pain is called neuropathic pain or nerve pain.

Over 26 million people worldwide suffer from neuropathic pain(1)
but only 40-60% of patients achieve adequate pain relief.(2)

The majority, approximately 60%, of neuropathic pain is
localised(3) (localised neuropathic pain, LNP) and is often described
as a burning, shooting, lancinating, electric shock like.(4) But more
frequently patients are trying to describe their pain in their own
words by using their individual, often very pictographic language.

A correct and early diagnose is crucial to find the right
treatment. Therefore patients need to describe their symptoms in as
much detail as possible to their doctor.

At the new website www.mypainfeelslike.com patients find a
questionnaire that helps them to describe in detail how their pain
feels like, how it affects their life and where the pain is
allocated.

"My pain feels like..." has been developed by Grünenthal GmbH
in collaboration with the Montescano Pain School, Italy. For
more information please visit www.grunenthal.com

References:

(1) Pal M et al (2009). Vanilloid receptor antagonists: emerging
class of novel anti-inflammatory agents for pain management. Curr
Pharm Des 15:1008-26

(2) Dworkin RH, O'Connor AB, Backonja M, et al (2007).
Pharmacologic management of neuropathic pain: evidence-based
recommendations. Pain;132:237-51

(3) Mick G et al (2012). What is localised neuropathic pain? A
first proposal to characterise and define a widely used term. Pain
manage 2(1), 71-77

(4) Woolf C et al (1999). Neuropathic pain: aetiology, symptoms,
mechanisms, and management. Lancet; 353:1959-64

About Grünenthal

The Grünenthal Group is an independent, family-owned,
international research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered
in Aachen, Germany. Building on its unique position in pain
treatment, its objective is to become the most patient-centric
company and thus to be a leader in therapy innovation. Grünenthal
is one of the last remaining five research-oriented
pharmaceutical companies with headquarters in Germany which
sustainably invests in research and development. The research
and development costs amounted to a preliminary of about 26
percent of revenues in 2012. Grünenthal's research and
development strategy concentrates on selected fields of therapy and
state-of-the-art technologies. We are intensely focused on
discovering new ways to treat pain better and more effectively,
with fewer side-effects than current therapies. Altogether, the
Grünenthal Group has affiliates in 26 countries worldwide.
Grünenthal products are sold in more than 155 countries and today
approx. 4,400 employees are working for the Grünenthal Group
worldwide. In 2012, Grünenthal achieved preliminary revenues of
E 973 mn. More information: www.grunenthal.com.

Contact:
Jeanette Hübsch,
Grünenthal Europe & Australia

Phone: +49 241-569-1487,
email: jeanette.huebsch@grunenthal.com