Aim: Effects of age and sex on chronic pain outcomes following spinal cord stimulation (SCS) have not yet been assessed. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 1 year outcomes from a database of patients receiving thoracic SCS. Subjects were divided into four cohorts: pre-menopausal and post-menopausal females, and aged-matched males. Improvement using the numerical rating scale, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), McGill Pain Questionnaire and Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was assessed. Results: Older females were notably different from males and females under 60 as they had greater improvements in ODI, BDI and PCS. Further, females ≥60 had greater improvement in PCS compared with males ≥60. Conclusion: Our findings suggest greater improvement with 1 year SCS treatment in post-menopausal females, compared with age-matched males.
Keywords: aging; chronic pain; menopause; perception; spinal cord stimulation.
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been shown to be an effective treatment for chronic pain that does not respond to other therapies. It is well recognized that men and women differ in how they perceive pain and how they respond to pain treatments. However, whether women who are over 60 years old and thus presumed to be menopausal respond differently to SCS has not been evaluated. We looked at our database which collected outcomes related to pain, measured before patients had SCS and 1 year after SCS. We found that women over 60 responded better to SCS treatment. They experienced significantly greater improvements in the disability, depression and catastrophizing associated with their pain than did women under 60. Further SCS resulted in more improvements in catastrophizing in women over 60 than in men over 60. Taken together, our hope is that these data help physicians to determine the best patients for SCS and to counsel their patients appropriately. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to show the impact of sex-specific aging on response to spinal cord stimulation. While we used age as a surrogate for menopause, menopausal status should be documented in the future to confirm that it effects response.