Background and aim: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative and incurable disease. For this reason, efforts should be directed toward symptom relief and quality of life (QoL) preservation1. Pain is one of the symptoms that can be experienced in all phases of ALS, although it is often neglected.2 The impact of pain in the QoL of ALS Brazilian patients still unknown. This study aims to investigate how much the pain influence on QoL of patients with ALS. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, carried out in two Brazilian school hospitals. The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Specific Quality of Life - Short Form (ALSSQOL-SF) was the instrument used.3The version of the questionnaire used in this study was a Brazilian validated version of it. It is composed of 20 questions, of 0 to 10 points, and the higher final score indicates a higher level of QoL. To assess the pain of the participant it was used the first question of ALSSQOL-SF, "I have experienced pain", in which higher scores mean a more severe pain. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between QoL and pain. The research was approved by the institutional research ethics committees. Results: One hundred thirty patients were included in the study. The correlation coefficient between the final QoL scores and the pain intensity scores was -0.53. This result exhibits a moderate correlation. The fact that this correlation has a negative value is negative means that, when the pain intensity score is lower, the quality of life score is higher. Other factors that present negative influence over the QoL of ALS patients were not studied in this research. Conclusion: Higher pain score, as presented in this study, has a negative influence over the QoL of Brazilian patients​ with ALS.

THE INFLUENCE OF PAIN ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS