The Unusual Link Between Two Rare Chronic Pain Conditions
/By Crystal Lindell
People who have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a genetic connective tissue disorder, are more likely to have Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – a chronic nerve pain condition that is usually triggered by an acute arm or leg injury.
That’s according to a new study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, who documented the unusual link between the two seemingly unrelated and rare pain conditions.
Their findings, published in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, show the risk of having CRPS was 11-times higher for patients with EDS, compared to those without EDS.
That’s based on an analysis of national insurance claims for more than 54 million patients. Among those patients, 26,053 had EDS, while 51,424 had CRPS.
Using that data, researchers calculated that 1.05% of people with EDS also have CRPS – meaning there’s about a 1 in 100 chance of having both conditions. Those are small odds, but they are substantially higher than the chance of someone without EDS having CRPS – which is only 0.09%.
“These findings provide the first large-scale population-based evidence consistent with prior case series suggesting a diagnostic co-occurrence between EDS and CRPS,” researchers concluded.
“Patients with EDS had a substantially higher proportion of recorded CRPS diagnoses than patients without EDS in this national claims dataset. These findings support further investigation into the observed association between EDS and CRPS diagnostic coding.”
The study did not look into how the two conditions may be linked, but one possible explanation is that weak connective tissue, joint instability, and the frequent injuries of people with EDS may put extra stress on the nervous system, which can trigger the chronic and severe nerve pain characteristic of CRPS.
There is also some overlap in symptoms of EDS and CRPS, such as slower healing of damaged tissue and dysregulation of the nervous system, which affects blood flow, sweating, and skin temperature.
Another explanation is a greater use of healthcare resources. People with EDS may be more aware of their symptoms and see doctors more often, which may increase the likelihood of diagnosing other health problems, such as CRPS.
