The IASP classification of chronic pain for ICD-11: chronic neuropathic pain

Abstract

Abstract The upcoming 11th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) of the World Health Organization (WHO) offers a unique opportunity to improve the representation of painful disorders. For this purpose, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has convened an interdisciplinary task force of pain specialists. Here, we present the case for a reclassification of nervous system lesions or diseases associated with persistent or recurrent pain for ≥3 months. The new classification lists the most common conditions of peripheral neuropathic pain: trigeminal neuralgia, peripheral nerve injury, painful polyneuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, and painful radiculopathy. Conditions of central neuropathic pain include pain caused by spinal cord or brain injury, poststroke pain, and pain associated with multiple sclerosis. Diseases not explicitly mentioned in the classification are captured in residual categories of ICD-11 . Conditions of chronic neuropathic pain are either insufficiently defined or missing in the current version of the ICD, despite their prevalence and clinical importance. We provide the short definitions of diagnostic entities for which we submitted more detailed content models to the WHO. Definitions and content models were established in collaboration with the Classification Committee of the IASP's Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group (NeuPSIG). Up to 10% of the general population experience neuropathic pain. The majority of these patients do not receive satisfactory relief with existing treatments. A precise classification of chronic neuropathic pain in ICD-11 is necessary to document this public health need and the therapeutic challenges related to chronic neuropathic pain.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Columbia University Irving Medical Center US
• Université Paris Cité FR
• University of Dundee GB
• Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris FR
• University Hospital Heidelberg DE
• Krembil Research Institute
• UCLouvain BE
• Johns Hopkins Medicine US
• Maastricht University NL
• University of Toronto CA
• The University of Western Australia AU
• University of Oslo
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai US
• UNSW Sydney AU
• Karolinska Institutet SE
• California Pacific Medical Center US
• Taipei Veterans General Hospital TW
• Hôpital Cochin FR
• Krankenhaus Lindenbrunn DE
• Délégation Paris 5 FR
• National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University TW
• University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein DE
• University of Münster DE
• Columbia University US
• Imperial College London GB
• Royal North Shore Hospital AU
• The University of Sydney AU
• Philipps University of Marburg DE
• New York State Psychiatric Institute
• Centre for Advanced Study
• Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc BE
• KU Leuven BE
• Aarhus University DK
• University Health Network CA
• Aarhus University Hospital DK
• Royal Perth Hospital AU
• University of Liverpool GB
• University of Chieti-Pescara IT
• Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines FR
• Danish Pain Research Center DK
• Oslo University Hospital
• Inserm FR
• New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute US
• Queen Mary University of London GB
• Sapienza University of Rome IT
• University of Lübeck DE
• University of Leeds GB
• University Medical Centre Mannheim DE
• St Vincent's Clinic AU
• Johns Hopkins University US
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey US
• Heidelberg University DE
• Hôpital Ambroise-Paré FR

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