Neural pain is a frequent symptom in leprosy disease. There is a paucity of data regarding neural pain diagnostics resulting in common prescriptive errors when neuritis is confused with neuropathic or mixed nociceptive-neuropathic pain. The present study identified important demographic, clinical, and neurophysiological features of 42 leprosy neuropathy patients presenting neuropathic pain (NP). During routine evaluations, patients were selected asking if they had ever experienced neural pain. Data analyses of their pain characteristics, clinical examination results, and both the Douleur Neuropathique 4 Questionnaire and Hamilton Depression Scale scores were used to classify these patients. The most common word they used to describe the sensation of pain for 25 (60%) of these patients was "burning." In the early stages of the disease and before leprosy diagnosis, 19 (45%) had already complained about NP and leprosy treatment was unable to prevent its occurrence in 15 (36%). Leprosy reactions, considered NP risk factors, occurred in 32 (76%) cases. Knowledge of typical NP characteristics could be used to develop more effective therapeutic approaches for a notoriously difficult-to-treat pain condition.

Among patients from Duque de Caxias, in comparison with patients from Rio de Janeiro, there was a higher proportion of cases: below the age of 15 years, multibacillary, higher initial bacilloscopic index (BI) and cases detected through surveillance of contacts. Patients in Duque de Caxias had lower average incomes and education levels. There were no statistically significant differences regarding gender, disability level, reaction in the diagnosis, final BI, bandonment and regularity of treatment. The differences found between the patients monitored in a single center of reference, could be partly related to contextual differences between the municipalities. On the other hand, it was observed that the provision of treatment and monitoring can minimize the effect of different contextual factors on health outcomes.