Sensory characteristics according to chronic diseases and chronic pain in adults: cross-sectional study.

 To investigate somatosensory, gustative and olfactory characteristics of subjects according to their chronic diseases and the presence of chronic pain complaints.  A total of 254 chronic pain patients and 52 healthy subjects were evaluated with a clinical and sensory systematized evaluation. Statistical analysis consisted of Fisher's exact, Student's t-tests, Pearson's co-efficient and multivariate nonlinear/logistic regressions.  Patients had more chronic diseases (p < 0.001) than healthy subjects. Chronic pain was associated with vibratory hypoesthesia (p = 0.047) and sour hypergeusia (p = 0.001) and several chronic diseases correlated with sensory features. Hyposmia was strongly associated with chronic pain symptoms, chronic diseases and cardiovascular disease.  The sensory findings observed suggest the need for further investigation about the overlap between the olfactory function, pain chronification, chronic diseases and cognitive impairment in these patients.