Somatosensory Profiling in Radicular Pain Patients And it's Correlation With Treatment Outcome

Somatosensory Profiling in Radicular Pain Patients And it's Correlation With Treatment Outcome

The investigators hypothesize that there may exist different quantitative sensory profiles between radicular pain patients who respond and those who do not respond to the standard therapy of epidural steroid injections (ESI).

The investigators are comparing warm/cold sensation, heat/cold pain threshold, heat/cold pain tolerance, wind-up, and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) as measured by Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) between subjects with a radicular pain condition. The investigators are comparing those who respond and those who do not respond to standard therapy (ESI) before and after the treatment.

Inclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of lower extremity radicular pain regardless of specific or suspected etiologies
• scheduling an epidural steroid injection (ESI)

Exclusion Criteria:

• a major psychiatric disorder requiring a recent (within one month) hospitalization, such as major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, and psychosis
• subject is taking illicit or recreational drug detected through a urine toxicology screen
• subject has had an interventional pain management procedures within the last eight weeks that may alter QST responses including neuraxial or local anesthetic block
• subject had a change in dosage of neuromodulatory pain medication (including gabapentin, pregabalin, cymbalta, amitriptyline, nortriptyline, trileptal, etc) in the past two weeks
• subject is pregnant
• subject has pending litigation involving the current pain condition being treated and studied.