OBJECTIVES: Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is the most common and troublesome complication of diabetes mellitus. It affects almost half of the population with diabetes and can greatly affect the quality of life of the patient. This study is aimed to determine the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy and associated pain in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM).

METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted over a period of six months. Patients ≥18 years previously diagnosed with DM were included in the study. Patients with hypothyroidism, medical illness such as cancer, liver or renal disease, cervical or lumbar spondylosis, and others conditions were excluded from the study. Neuropathy was diagnosed using 10g monofilament test. The presence of neuropathy was then confirmed using the Nerve conduction velocity (NCV) test. The S-LANSS questionnaire was used to assess the associated painful symptoms. Association was calculated using chi-square test. A p- value of ≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant. All the statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v22.

RESULTS: The result of this study is based upon the response of 201 patients. The response rate was found to be 83.33%. The mean age of the participants was 51.50 ± 10.03 years. The overall prevalence was found to be 29% from which 88% patients were found to have painful symptoms. These painful symptoms were primarily managed using duloxetine, pregabalin and α-Lipoic Acid + Methylcobalamin. A significant association of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) was observed with the duration of diabetes (p= 0.004), glycaemic control (p= 0.03) and other diabetic complications such as nephropathy (p=0.002) and constipation (p=0.043). No association of neuropathy was found with retinopathy and hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS: The current study found high prevalence of peripheral neuropathy in diabetic patients. DPN was significantly associated with the duration of diabetes, glycaemic control and nephropathy.