Pain

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In PDS pain can present itself in many ways, most frequently as muscular pain, and it can be both chronic or acute.  Pain may include headache and migraines, cervicalgia, dorsalgia, low back pain, cruralgia or sciatica. Pain at the level of the epigastric, iliac fossa, of the arms and of the legs, in particular the back of the legs, is also frequent. 

 

Plantar and heel pain can make walking very uncomfortable and can lead to reduced mobility. Hyperalgic braquialgia is rare but the intensity of the pain is such that it can lead to suicidal thoughts.

 

In some cases, the type of pain is similar to that experienced in other conditions, which can lead to misdiagnosis. 

 

Due to the seriousness of these illnesses, a careful differential diagnostic is imperative.  These include thoracic pain, which can be misdiagnosed as a heart attack, and groin pain which can be misdiagnosed as appendicitis or as pelvic inflammatory disease. Epigastralgia is very frequent in children and often misdiagnosed as being a digestive pathology.

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