Widerstrom-Noga & Turk 2003;
USA
Downs & Black score=14
Case control
N=120

Population: Mean age = 40.6 yrs; Gender: males = 94, females = 26; Level of injury = cervical, non-cervical; Time since injury = 9.8 yrs.
Treatment: Individuals with SCI related pain filled out a questionnaire; data from the questionnaire was analysed by dividing individuals into two groups: those that received pain treatment and those that did not..
Outcome Measures: Sociodemographic data and characteristics of injury, intensity of pain, location of pain, quality of pain, allodynia (pain in response to a stimulus that would not provoke pain), MPI (designed to assess the impact of pain and adaptation to chronic pain), difficulty in dealing with pain and pain treatments.

1. Overall 59.2% of participants used pharmacological or non- pharmacological treatments to control pain. 40.8% indicated they had not used nor had they been prescribed any medication for pain.
2. Pain Severity: Pain severity was found to be higher for those who had received pain medications (PM) (3.9 + 1.3, p=0.001) compared to those who had not used any pain treatment. The intensity of pain was higher for those on PM than for those not on PM (p=0.022).
3. Pain Locations: Those using PM reported more painful areas than those not using PM (p=0.001) with frontal/genital pain reported more often (p<0.000).
4. Quality of Pain: Those on PM used more descriptive adjectives to describe their pain compared to those not using PM (p=0.031).
5. Difficulty in Dealing with Pain: Those using PM reported having more difficulty dealing with pain than those not using PM (p<0.000).
6. Pain impact: Those using PM had higher scores for the pain severity scale and the life interference scale compared to the group not using PM (p<0.002).