Silvia Regina Dowgan Tesseroli de Siqueira

Aim: To investigate somatosensory, gustative and olfactory characteristics of subjects according to their chronic diseases and the presence of chronic pain complaints. Materials & methods: A total of 254 chronic pain patients and 52 healthy subjects were evaluated with a clinical and sensory systematized evaluation. Statistical analysis consisted of Fisher's exact, Student's t-tests, Pearson's co-efficient and multivariate nonlinear/logistic regressions. Results: Patients had more chronic diseases (p < 0.001) than healthy subjects. Chronic pain was associated with vibratory hypoesthesia (p = 0.047) and sour hypergeusia (p = 0.001) and several chronic diseases correlated with sensory features. Hyposmia was strongly associated with chronic pain symptoms, chronic diseases and cardiovascular disease. Conclusion: The sensory findings observed suggest the need for further investigation about the overlap between the olfactory function, pain chronification, chronic diseases and cognitive impairment in these patients.

Over the last decades, the Orofacial Pain Clinic Questionnaire (EDOF-HC) has been used as the main tool to obtain relevant information from patients with orofacial pain in our clinic⁸. It is in accordance with the diagnostic criteria from the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)⁹ and the International Headache Society (IHS)¹⁰. Our group has published several studies on the diagnoses of orofacial conditions and characteristics that used this questionnaire in the methodology^{11,12,13,14,15}, and it has shown to be effective to obtain major information from the patient’s anamnesis and examination to gather clinical hypotheses for the diagnosis.

Purpose The objective of this study was to review the literature to find scientific evidence about the mechanisms involved in orofacial sensory interaction, including trigeminal and special sensory modalities. Views Conscious sensory perception depends on peripheral external and internal...

Keywords: Aging; sensory thresholds; aged; taste; smell

Coping strategies are necessary to deal with pain, one of the most disabling conditions. Treatments are often refractory, and the elaboration of existential meaning is necessary to live with residual pain. The objective of this study was to discuss the relevance of the meaning of life in coping with refractory chronic neuropathic facial pain according to singular cases. Each patient is unique and needs a singular approach to understand and treat the pain phenomenon. Self-transcendence, existential issues and philosophical values are central concepts to assess chronic conditions and should be highlighted in medical practice these days.