RT Journal Article
T1 Understanding Sensitization, Cognitive and Neuropathic Associated Mechanisms behind Post-COVID Pain: A Network Analysis
A1 Fernández de las Peñas, César
A1 Herrero Montes, Manuel
A1 Cancela Cilleruelo, Ignacio
A1 Rodríguez Jiménez, Jorge
A1 Parás Bravo, Paula
A1 Varol, Umut
A1 del Valle Loarte, Pablo
A1 Flox Benítez, Gema
A1 Arendt Nielsen, Lars
A1 Valera Calero, Juan Antonio
AB This study aimed to describe a network including demographic, sensory-related, psychological/cognitive and other variables in individuals with post-COVID pain after hospitalization. Demographic (i.e., age, height, weight, months with symptoms), sensory-related (Central Sensitization Inventory-CSI-, Self-Report Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms-S-LANSS-, PainDETECT), psychological/cognitive (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-HADS-A/HADS-D-, Pain Catastrophizing Scale-PCS-, Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia-TSK-11-) and other (sleep quality and health-related quality of life-EQ/5D/5L) variables were collected in 146 COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain. A network analysis was conducted to quantify the adjusted correlations between the modelled variables, and to assess their centrality indices (i.e., the connectivity with other symptoms in the network and the importance in the system modelled as network). The network revealed associations between sensory-related and psychological/cognitive variables. PainDETECT was associated with S-LANSS (ρ: 0.388) and CSI (ρ: 0.207). Further, CSI was associated with HADS-A (ρ: 0.269), TSK-11 (ρ: 0.165) and female gender (ρ: 0.413). As expected, HADS-A was associated with HADS-D (ρ: 0.598) and TSK-11 with PCS (ρ: 0.405). The only negative association was between sleep quality and EQ-5D-5L (ρ: −0.162). Gender was the node showing the highest strength, closeness, and betweenness centralities. In addition, CSI was the node with the second highest closeness and betweenness centralities, whereas HADS-D was the node with the second highest strength centrality. This is the first study applying a network analysis for phenotyping post-COVID pain. Our findings support a model where sensitization-associated symptoms, neuropathic phenotype, and psychological aspects are connected, reflecting post-COVID pain as a nociplastic pain condition. In addition, post-COVID pain is gender dependent since female sex plays a relevant role. Clinical implications of current findings, e.g., developing treatments targeting these mechanisms, are discussed.
PB Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
YR 2022
FD 2022-06-24
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/135079
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/135079
LA eng
NO Fernández-De-las-peñas C, Herrero-Montes M, Cancela-Cilleruelo I, Rodríguez-Jiménez J, Parás-Bravo P, Varol U, et al. Understanding Sensitization, Cognitive and Neuropathic Associated Mechanisms behind Post-COVID Pain: A Network Analysis. Diagnostics. 2022;12(7).
NO Proyecto financiado por la convocatoria Next-Val 2021 de la Fundación Instituto de Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla (IDIVAL) y por una ayuda de la Novo Nordisk Foundation 0067235. Los patrocinadores no tuvieron ningún papel en el diseño, recogida, gestión, análisis o interpretación de los datos, ni en la redacción, revisión o aprobación del manuscrito o de su contenido. Los autores fueron responsables de la decisión de enviar el manuscrito para su publicación, y el patrocinador no participó en esta decisión
DS Docta Complutense
RD 30 abr 2026