Sex, quality of life and brain function in complex regional pain syndrome

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a severely disabling pain syndrome. Patients report a poorer quality of life than patients with other chronic pain conditions, particularly in the physical domains (chapter 2). Sex differences are small, although male patients experience a higher psychological burden than female CRPS patients (chapter 3).Considering the pathophysiology CRPS, we could not reproduce previous MRI findings of altered brain function and structure in rest (Chapter 4). We did find increased salience detecting during the application of a painful stimulus with opposite activation of brain regions involved in reducing the affected burden of pain (chapter 5). Lastly, cortical motor activations during motor tasks differ from previously published results in patients with functional movement disorders (chapter 6).Dutch goverment grant (BSIKO3016)LUMC / Geneeskund