Both groups of patients have significant impairments and should receive long-term follow-up care.
To assess how patients view their health status after having had neuropathy for 5 to 6 years, researchers sent standardized questionnaires to patients with chronic idiopathic neuropathy (CIN) or Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and to healthy controls. The questionnaires included the Fatigue Severity Scale, the Visual Analog Scale for pain rating, the Disability Rating Index, and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short-form health status scale. Of the recipients, 42 patients with CIN, 42 with GBS, and 50 controls completed the questionnaires. Median disease duration was 5.4 years for the CIN group and 6.4 years for the GBS group.
Both affected groups showed evidence of persistent, substantial health issues. The CIN patients were more fatigued …