Study Shows Women Suffer More Neck Pain

Women are 1.38 times more likely than men to report neck pain due to cervical degenerative disc disease, according to a study of adult patients treated at Loyola Medicine's Pain Management Center.

The study, by Meda Raghavendra, MD and Joseph Holtman, MD, PhD, of Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine in Palm Springs, Ca.

The findings add to the growing body of research on the differences in which men and women experience pain. Previous studies have found that females are more likely to be treated at pain clinics for chronic pain and that certain painful conditions, such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia, are more common in women. Various explanations have been proposed, including hormonal differences and the belief that men may be less willing to report pain.

Cervical degenerative disc disease is a common cause of neck pain. Symptoms include stiff or inflexible neck, burning, tingling and numbness. Pain is most prevalent when the patient is upright or moving the head.

The Loyola study included 3,337 patients who were treated at Loyola's Pain Management Center. Sixty-one percent were female.

Drs. Raghavendra and Holtman conducted a similar study of patients who were treated at Loyola's Pain Management Center for lumbosacral degenerative disc disease (lower back pain). The prevalence in females, 12 percent, was slightly higher than the prevalence in males, 11 percent, but this difference was not statistically significant.

Dr. Raghavendra is an associate professor and Dr. Holtman is a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Dr. Holtman also is program director of Pain Management. Loyola's Pain Management Center provides integrated clinical care for the management of acute and chronic pain.

The multidisciplinary team includes anesthesiologists, psychologists and pain specialists who work closely with orthopaedic surgeons, neurologists, oncologists, otolaryngologists, gastroenterologists and other specialists to care for patients with a wide array of painful conditions.

Loyola University Health System (LUHS) is part of Trinity Health. Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, LUHS is a quaternary care system with a 61-acre main medical center campus, the 36-acre Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus and more than 30 primary and specialty care facilities in Cook, Will and DuPage counties. Loyola University Medical Center's campus is conveniently located in Maywood, 13 miles west of Chicago's Loop and 8 miles east of Oak Brook, Ill. At the heart of the medical center campus is a 559-licensed-bed hospital that houses a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Burn Center and the Ronald McDonald� Children's Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center.

Also on campus are the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola Outpatient Center, Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine and Loyola Oral Health Center as well as Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the Loyola Center for Fitness. Loyola's Gottlieb campus in Melrose Park includes the 255-licensed-bed community hospital, the Professional Office Building housing 150 private practice clinics, the Adult Day Care, the Gottlieb Center for Fitness, Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center at Melrose Park.

Trinity Health is a national Catholic health system with an enduring legacy and a steadfast mission to be a transforming and healing presence within the communities we serve. Trinity is committed to being a people-centered health care system that enables better health, better care and lower costs. Trinity Health has 91 hospitals and hundreds of continuing care facilities, home care agencies and outpatient centers in 21 states and 95,000 employees.