Purpose of review: To address the issues of the scale and diversity of chronic pain in neurological disorders and the evidence for effective treatment of pain in these conditions.
Recent findings: Contemporary literature supports the notion that pain in neurological conditions is common and has tended to be underestimated.
Summary: Pain in neurological disease displays great diversity in putative mechanisms and clinical presentation. Rational management requires an analysis of likely mechanisms of pain generation as a guide to treatment. Some common neurological disorders are briefly discussed, primarily to provide an indication of the range of pain phenotypes observed across the spectrum of neurological disease. Treatments are reviewed with an emphasis on systemic drugs and the current best evidence for their use.