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Query: UMLS:C0011849 (diabetes)
 277,896 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The influence of sex and age on the distribution of lesions, incidence of postherpetic neuralgia, and related disorders in herpes zoster is reported. Results were obtained by reviewing the records of 140 outpatients with herpes zoster seen over a ten-year period. Trigeminal involvement and post-herpetic neuralgia were more common in patients over 50 years of age. The most common sites of lesions in all ages were the thoracic dermatomes, between T-1 and T-8. The distribution of lesions and the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia did not vary between the sexes. High incidences of diabetes and cataracts were found to be associated with herpes zoster infection. Clinical carcinoma of the prostate was a frequent finding in men with herpes zoster over age 50. In those patients with malignancies, there was no correlation between distribution of zoster lesions and location of malignancy.
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PMID:Herpes zoster: correlation of age, sex, distribution, neuralgia, and associated disorders. 127 13

Neuralgic pain during or following herpes zoster infection is a common problem in pain therapy. The current management of neuralgias due to zoster is discussed with reference to patients in a chronic pain clinic within an anesthesiology department. The courses of 80 patients followed up for at least 3 months from the pain clinic at the University Hospital in Kiel were analyzed. The mean age was 69 years. The predominant locations for zoster lesions were the thoracic segments (65%) and the first branch of the trigeminal nerve (19%). Diabetes mellitus was present in 20% of the patients and malignant disease in 18%. In 2 patients recurrent postherpetic neuralgia was the first symptom of HIV infection. Despite pretreatment, the mean initial pain score was 8 on an analog scale (range 0-10). Acute herpes zoster pain during the infection was treated with virustatic agents, corticosteroids and sympathetic blocks. Postherpetic neuralgias required a more sophisticated approach, depending on the stage of the disease and the type of pain involved: sympathetic blockade with local anesthetic agents or injections of very low dose opioids to sympathetic ganglia, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and antidepressants or anticonvulsants. The success of the therapy is correlated with the duration of pain. If the history of zoster pain was less than 1 month, the majority of patients showed good or excellent results. On the other hand, only one-third of patients with a history longer than 6 months had adequate pain relief. Therefore, early and appropriate treatment is desirable for patients suffering from zoster neuralgias.
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PMID:[The treatment of zoster neuralgia]. 168 93

Postherpetic pain persisting 1 month or longer occurs in only a small percentage of all patients with herpes zoster. In most patients, PHN tends to diminish with time. The incidence is, however, directly related to age. Any therapeutic claim for prophylaxis or treatment of PHN has to be evaluated with these observations in mind. There is some information about the pathologic features and a concept of the pathogenesis can be suggested. There is evidence for an imbalance in fiber input (reduced large, inhibitory fibers, and intact or increased small, excitatory fibers) to an abnormal dorsal horn that may contain hypersensitive neurons. Prevention of PHN remains difficult. There is evidence that systemic steroids exert a preventive effect when employed in the treatment of herpes zoster in the immunocompetent patient. A reasonable regimen is 60 mg of prednisone tapered over 10 to 14 days. One double-blind, controlled study supports the use of amantadine in this situation; this drug is an option in patients for whom steroids are contraindicated, such as those with peptic ulcer, diabetes mellitus or compromised immune function. The dosage of amantadine used in this study was 100 mg twice daily for a month. Although a number of other therapies have been suggested, these remedies remain in need of further, more scientific study. For established PHN, there is firm support for the reduction of pain from severe to mild in two thirds of patients administered low doses of amitriptyline followed by gradual, small increments. In the age group over 65 years, one may use as small a dose as 10 mg with an increase of 10 mg every 5 to 7 days. In those younger than 65, a dose of 25 mg to start is reasonable, with increments of 25 mg. Although unproved, the addition of a phenothiazine, such as fluphenazine, may provide further pain relief. Preliminary studies also indicate that topical capsaicin may be a useful new treatment. Although widely used, there is no good evidence for the use of anticonvulsants alone in this disorder. Studies of local anesthetic sprays with vibration and continuous TENS are uncontrolled, but these modalities may be of some merit. One uncontrolled study reported benefit from epidural steroids. DREZ lesions are a possibility in failed medical cases, but other surgical procedures appear to be of little or no use. Although the measures described here will benefit a number of patients, PHN remains an intractable problem in some cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Postherpetic neuralgia. 256

We present a case report of a patient with the typical sensory features of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN). The pain was elicited by innocuous stimuli, summated with repeated stimulation, radiated outside the stimulus zone, referred to a distant site, persisted beyond the period of stimulation, and exhibited a variable refractory period. Unusual sensory features included multiple trigger zones that changed over time and involved all 3 trigeminal divisions. Our sensory evaluation indicated that the pain was evoked by repetitive activation of rapidly adapting, A beta, low-threshold mechanoreceptive afferents. However, activation of such mechanoreceptive afferents alone never produces pain in normal situations and often leads to a suppression of pain responsivity. The findings support the idea that the mechanism of pain in ITN involves pathophysiological mechanisms in the central nervous system. Our hypothesis is that structural and functional changes in the trigeminal system result in an alteration in the receptive field organization of wide-dynamic-range (WDR) neurons. There appears to be an alteration in the surround inhibition mechanism of these neurons leading to an expansion of their touch receptive fields. This results in touch stimuli producing activity in WDR neurons that mimics the activity produced under normal conditions by noxious stimuli. Since WDR neurons participate in the encoding of the perceived intensity of noxious stimuli, a series of punctate tactile stimuli are now perceived as localized, pin-prick or electric shock-like sensations. Similar pathophysiological mechanisms may explain, in part, the pain of peripheral neuropathies associated with postherpetic neuralgia, diabetes and causalgia.
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PMID:Idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia: sensory features and pain mechanisms. 369 41

It is apparent from published studies that corticosteroids do not prevent the development of postherpetic neuralgia. Earlier trials that indicated some benefit in both acute neuralgia and the prevention of postherpetic neuralgia are of limited use to clinicians due to problems with uncontrolled study designs, small sample sizes, and the absence of statistical analysis of the results. The lack of a consensus definition of postherpetic neuralgia, the variable agents and dosages used, and the different pain scales reported are of concern when trying to interpret the results of these studies for their clinical significance. In more recent larger and well-designed studies, similar rates of postherpetic neuralgia were observed in the corticosteroid and control groups. As a result of these findings, corticosteroids should not be recommended for the prevention of postherpetic neuralgia. Despite lack of efficacy in preventing postherpetic neuralgia, limited studies suggest corticosteroids such as prednisone (40-60 mg/d tapered over 3 wk) are well tolerated and may confer slightly significant benefits in reducing the duration of acute neuralgia and improving quality-of-life measures. However, the clinical significance and application of these findings remain to be addressed. If corticosteroids are used for acute neuralgia, clinicians are advised to select their patients carefully. The patients treated in these studies were generally healthy and free of comorbid diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and psychiatric disorders, which can be exacerbated in the presence of corticosteroids. Although dissemination of herpes zoster has been reported infrequently, it remains a potential risk with use of corticosteroids. Until the results of these studies are repeated in more diverse patient populations, corticosteroids appear to have a limited role in the management of acute neuralgia associated with herpes zoster.
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PMID:Oral corticosteroids for pain associated with herpes zoster. 979 4

Pain management is rapidly changing as the mysteries of how healthy and damaged nervous systems work to communicate pain to the brain become better understood. The role of subcutaneous or intravenous lidocaine in the management of neuropathic pain has been increasingly studied. Patients with a variety of pain have been shown to benefit from this therapy, including patients with cancer, postherpetic neuralgia, second degree burns, strokes, and diabetes. As research and experience grow, so too will the practitioner's ability to successfully use intravenous and subcutaneous lidocaine therapy for their patients with pain.
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PMID:The role of systemic lidocaine in neuropathic pain management. 1077 91

Pregabalin binds with high affinity to the alpha2-delta subunit protein of voltage-gated calcium channels and, thereby, reduces release of excitatory neurotransmitters. This 12-week randomised, double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study evaluated the efficacy and safety of pregabalin in patients with chronic postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) or painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Patients were randomised to placebo (n=65) or to one of two pregabalin regimens: a flexible schedule of 150, 300, 450, and 600 mg/day with weekly dose escalation based on patients' individual responses and tolerability (n=141) or a fixed schedule of 300 mg/day for 1 week followed by 600 mg/day for 11 weeks (n=132). Both flexible- and fixed-dose pregabalin significantly reduced endpoint mean pain score (primary outcome) versus placebo (P=0.002, P<0.001) and were significantly superior to placebo in improving pain-related sleep interference (P<0.001). The most common adverse events (AEs) for pregabalin-treated patients were dizziness, peripheral oedema, weight gain (not affecting diabetes control), and somnolence. These results are consistent with previous studies' demonstrating pregabalin's efficacy, tolerability, and safety for treatment of chronic neuropathic pain associated with DPN or PHN. Pregabalin dosing aimed at optimal balance of efficacy and tolerability provides significant pain relief and may reduce risks for AEs and therapy discontinuation.
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PMID:Efficacy of pregabalin in neuropathic pain evaluated in a 12-week, randomised, double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled trial of flexible- and fixed-dose regimens. 1591 Nov 52

(1) The first-line treatment for partial epilepsy is carbamazepine monotherapy; gabapentin monotherapy is an alternative, given its lower risk of drug-drug interactions. (2) The standard treatment for neuropathic pain associated with diabetes or post-herpetic neuralgia is a tricyclic antidepressant, with gabapentin as an alternative. Few drugs are available in this setting, and their efficacy is often modest. (3) Pregabalin is a GABA analogue closely related to gabapentin. Both drugs are marketed by Pfizer. Pregabalin has been approved for use in two indications: refractory partial epilepsy and neuropathic pain. (4) In patients with partial epilepsy inadequately controlled by a combination of two or possibly three antiepileptics, three placebo-controlled double-blind trials lasting 12 weeks suggest that adjunctive pregabalin treatment, at a dose of 600 mg/day divided in two or three doses, at least halves the frequency of seizures in 50% of patients. Pregabalin has not been compared with other second-line antiepileptics. (5) In neuropathic pain, there are 12 double-blind placebo-controlled trials involving patients with diabetes or post-herpetic neuralgia. Depending on the trial, between one-third and one-half of patients treated with pregabalin at a dose of 600 mg/day given in two or three doses had at least a 50% reduction in their pain score. In the only trial that included a group treated with amitriptyline (75 mg/day), the latter was significantly more effective than placebo, while pregabalin was not. (6) There are no comparative trials of pregabalin after amitriptyline and gabapentin failure. (7) The adverse effects profile of pregabalin is similar to that of gabapentin, and includes mainly neuropsychological reactions (dizziness and drowsiness). (8) Pregabalin, like gabapentin, can lead to weight gain and peripheral oedema especially in elderly patients. (9) Cases of visual field restriction have been reported with pregabalin in clinical trials. Animal studies suggest a possible risk of haemangiosarcoma, although no human cases have yet been described. (10) Pregabalin, like gabapentin, is eliminated unchanged in urine, implying a limited risk of interactions involving cytochrome P450, and suggesting that the dose should be reduced in patients with even moderate renal failure (creatinine clearance below 60 ml/min). (11) In practice, pregabalin offers nothing new for patients with partial epilepsy, for whom several other antiepileptics are available. The few available treatments for neuropathic pain have limited efficacy, and pregabalin may therefore be tried when both tricyclics and gabapentin fail. However, it is in no way certain that pregabalin is effective in such patients, and comparative trials are lacking.
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PMID:Pregabalin: new drug. Very similar to gabapentin. 1639 76

Pain, both acute and chronic, affects millions of people in the United States. Pain can be categorized along a variety of dimensions, including one of the most important divisions, nociceptive versus neuropathic pain (NP). Nociceptive pain results from activity in neural pathways secondary to actual tissue damage or potentially tissue-damaging stimuli. NP is chronic pain that is initiated by nervous system lesions or dysfunction and can be maintained by a number of different mechanisms. Three common conditions that are often associated with acute and chronic NP are painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), painful postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and cancer. Although estimates of DPN vary widely depending on the assessment criteria employed, as many as 50% of people with diabetes have some degree of DPN. PHN develops secondary to herpes zoster infection, and there are 600,000 to 800,000 cases of herpes zoster in the United States each year, with 9% to 24% of patients progressing to PHN. Acute or chronic NP may occur in more than 50% of patients with cancer pain. Patients with painful DPN, PHN, or cancer may present with a variety of acute or chronic NP symptoms, and it is important to distinguish these conditions from other pain syndromes so that appropriate therapy can be initiated.
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PMID:Differential diagnosis: nociceptive and neuropathic pain. 1677 57

As people grow old, their need for medications increases dramatically because of the higher incidence of chronic pain, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular and neurological diseases in the elderly population. Furthermore, the elderly require special consideration with respect to drug delivery, drug interactions and adherence. In particular, patients with chronic neurological diseases often require multiple administration of drugs during the day to maintain constant plasma medication levels, which in turn increases the likelihood of poor adherence. Consequently, several attempts have been made to develop pharmacological preparations that can achieve a constant rate of drug delivery. For example, transdermal lisuride and apomorphine have been shown to reduce motor fluctuations and duration of 'off' periods in advanced Parkinson's disease, while rotigotine allows significant down-titration of levodopa without severe adverse effects. Thus, parkinsonian patients with long-term levodopa syndrome or motor disorders during sleep could benefit from use of transdermal lisuride and apomorphine. Moreover, transdermal dopaminergic drugs, particularly rotigotine, seem the ideal treatment for patients experiencing restless legs syndrome or periodic limb movement disorder during sleep, disorders that are quite common in elderly people or in association with neurodegenerative diseases. Unlike dopaminergic drugs, transdermal treatments for the management of cognitive and behavioural dysfunction in patients with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease have inconsistent effects and no clearly established role. Nevertheless, because of their favourable pharmacological profile and bioavailability, the cholinesterase inhibitors tacrine and rivastigmine are expected to show at least the same benefits as oral formulations of these drugs, but with fewer severe adverse effects. Transdermal delivery systems play an important role in the management of neuropathic pain. The transdermal lidocaine (lignocaine) patch is recommended as first-line therapy for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia. Furthermore, in patients with severe persistent pain, transdermal delivery systems using the opioids fentanyl and buprenorphine are able to achieve satisfactory analgesia with good tolerability, comparable to the benefits seen with oral formulations. Transdermal administration is the ideal therapeutic approach for chronic neurological disorders in elderly people because it provides sustained therapeutic plasma levels of drugs, is simple to use, and may reduce systemic adverse effects. Several transdermal delivery systems are currently under investigation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and neuropathic pain. Although most transdermal delivery systems treatments cannot be considered as first-line therapy at present, some of them provide clear advantages compared with other routes of administration and may become the preferred treatment in selected patients. In general, however, most transdermal treatments still require long-term evaluation in large patient groups in order to optimise dosages and evaluate the actual incidence of local and systemic adverse effects.
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PMID:Transdermal treatment options for neurological disorders: impact on the elderly. 1682 90


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