Pain and Itching
Pain in Multiple Sclerosis
Common Experiences of Pain in the Body due to MS
- Neck and back pain may be neuropathic or musculoskeletal. This means you may experience pain as a direct result of nerve damage in these areas. Or, because you’ve strained your muscles or joints. Neck and back pain can be either acute or chronic.Neuropathic pain in the back and neck can feel like a burning, radiating pain. You may also experience Lhermitte’s sign. This is a brief, stabbing sensation from the back of your head down your spine. Often it spreads into the arms or legs brought on by bending your neck forward. It can also feel like repeated electric shocks from the back of your head down through your spine. It typically means there is or has been damage from MS in the cervical spine (neck). When this happens for the first time, it could be a first sign of MS or a sign of a relapse.
- A stabbing pain in the face or jaw area can occur as an initial symptom of MS or as a relapse. It’s known as trigeminal neuralgia. Often confused with dental pain, it comes and goes unpredictably. Trigeminal neuralgia is neuropathic and acute or chronic.
- As with neck and back pain, pain in your legs or arms can be musculoskeletal or neuropathic, acute or chronic. Paroxysmal spasms — a brief tightening of your muscles — can cause pain in your legs and arms. These spasms may occur many times during the day or night.You may experience musculoskeletal pain as a result of a change in your gait. You can also feel it because you are compensating for a weakness in your arms or legs. You may also experience nerve pain in your arms and legs resulting from nerve damage in your spine. This can cause weakness and numbness.
- Joint pain associated with MS is mostly musculoskeletal and indirectly caused by other MS symptoms. For example, deconditioning as a result of fatigue or declining mobility can weaken muscles and leave your joints poorly supported. Balance challenges can change your gait, or walk, and compensating for this change can create hip or back pain or muscle spasms.
Strange Sensation”." c-nmssatomrichtext_nmssatomrichtext-host=""> A common source of MS pain in your torso is the “MS hug." This "hug" is a squeezing sensation that feels like a blood pressure cuff when it tightens. This is from damage to the spine from MS and could be a first symptom of MS, a relapse, or chronic pain. Some people describe the chronic sensation as a band of burning pain that comes and goes. It’s a type of chronic pain called “dysesthesia.” An MS hug is always neuropathic.Learn about MS hug in the Momentum article “Strange Sensation”.vision problems associated with MS. Optic neuritis is caused by inflammation of the optic (vision) nerve. It usually occurs in one eye at a time. It may also cause: - Blurred vision
- Dim vision
- Loss of color vision
- In rare cases, loss of vision
If you have MS, you may experience an aching or poking pain with eye movement. This can be the result of optic neuritis, one of several vision problems associated with MS. Optic neuritis is caused by inflammation of the optic (vision) nerve. It usually occurs in one eye at a time. It may also cause:- Blurred vision
- Dim vision
- Loss of color vision
- In rare cases, loss of vision
Itching in Multiple Sclerosis
Treatment Options for MS Pain
Pain can be treated with both pharmacologic (medication) and nonpharmacologic interventions. Pain medications alone have not been shown to take away all pain for most people. In general, the treatment should be designed to address the root cause, or source, of your pain. Before starting any treatment, please discuss options with your healthcare provider. This includes both prescription and over-the-counter medications.Learn about the role the mind can play in pain management in the clip below from the Ask an MS Expert episode “Pain Management for MS.”
