Quantitative Thermal Testing Profiles as a Predictor of Treatment Response to Topical Capsaicin in Patients with Localized Neuropathic Pain

Table 1

Demographic data according to treatment response.

Variable	Nonresponders	Responders	value
Gender (female/male ratio)	19/12	13/11	0.28
Age (mean)	60.26 (14.25)	58.42 (13.28)	0.62
DN4 score	5.90 (1.37)	5.39 (1.29)	0.24
Pretreatment NPRS	7.21 (1.20)	6.89 (1.75)	0.79
Posttreatment NPRS	7.08 (1.29)	2.92 (1.38)	n.a.
Duration of improvement, months (mean)	b	72.89	n.a.
Type of PeNP
CPSP	18	13
PHN	12	8
Posttrauma	0	1
CRPS	1	2

DN4 = Douleur Neuropathique 4 Questionnaire. NPRS = numerical pain rating scale (0–10). CPSP = chronic postsurgical pain. PHN = postherpetic neuralgia. CRPS = complex regional pain syndrome type I. n.a. = not applicable. Gender and type of PeNP for the whole patient sample. For the others, numbers are given as means. Standard deviation in parenthesis. a = calculated for 19 patients. The other 5 were excluded due to reporting > 6 months of improvement. b = nonresponders had no days of improvement, most of whom reported no improvement at all. c = posttrauma and CRPS were not taken into account for the analysis due to the small number of patients.