Analysis of Pain and Quality of Life in Patients With Charcot-Marie-Tooth Neuropathy (CMT)

Hereditary neuropathies are a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous diseases of the peripheral nervous system. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), also known as hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (HMSN), is the most common form of hereditary neuropathy with a prevalence of approximately 1 in 2,500 and with approximately 30,000 affected persons in Germany. There is no therapy known so far. In addition to the characteristic symptoms of a distal to proximal progressive symmetric muscular atrophy, especially of the lower extremities, there is a weakening of the muscles of the lower legs and feet, with emphasis on the "small" foot muscles and the peroneal muscle group, which clinically manifests as a so-called "stepper gait". It is also known that many CMT patients additionally suffer from pain, but more detailed studies on pain quality and quantity and their impact on patients' quality of life have not yet been systematically performed. These parameters will be investigated in this study, supported by the company Grünenthal, in the form of a questionnaire survey with validated questionnaires on pain and quality of life for at least 200 CMT patients. A representative result could lead to further investigations of pain in CMT patients and ultimately to the development of an adequate pain therapy.

Recruitment of patients will occur mainly through a call of the Germany-wide CMT registry, which is part of the national research network CMT-NET (coordinator: Prof. Michael Sereda). Interested patients are invited to contact the study team at the UMG. The patients will be informed about the study and if further interested 4 questionnaires (1 regarding the personal history as well as 3 standardized questionnaires from literature regarding quality of life and pain (SF-36, NPSI-G, PAIN DETECT) will be sent to the patients together with obligatory study documents and a pre-franked return envelope. A personal visit at the UMG is not planned, so that the patients don´t have any expenses. The data are pseudonymized at the UMG and transferred to a database and finally statistically evaluated by Gruenenthal.