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Query: UMLS:C0423716 (Neuropathic pain)
 1,417 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A variety of pharmacologic approaches to the management of pain due to nerve damage have been tried, with mixed results. Sympathetically maintained pain responds most commonly to sympathetic nerve blocks. Oral nifedipine may be a useful adjunct. Many-but not all-neuropathic pain patients experience relief from low-dose tricyclic antidepressants. When those drugs are not sufficient, the addition of an anticonvulsant, systemic local anesthetic, or both, to the antidepressant may be useful. Neuropathic pain with a major cutaneous component may respond well to topical therapy with the Substance P depletor capsaicin to reduce elevated prostaglandin levels. Topical therapy is most commonly used as an adjunct to systemic drugs. There is now good evidence that early treatment of acute herpes neuralgia with famciclovir may be effective in reducing postherpetic neuralgia. The role of opioids in chronic nerve pain is unclear. Most patients do not respond to these drugs, and should not receive them. Many patients with chronic neuropathic or sympathetically maintained pain need detoxification from opioids, sedative-hypnotics, and muscle relaxants. Some patients cannot carry out normal activities of daily living without opioids, however, and function well while taking low-dose, regularly scheduled opioids. The prognosis for successfully managing neuropathic and sympathetically maintained pain is greatly improved if appropriate therapy is initiated early in the course of the pain. When patients do not respond adequately to initial drug therapy, referral to an interdisciplinary pain management program for evaluation may be in order. Many neuropathic and SMP patients have complex pain syndromes which are most effectively managed through a coordinated, interdisciplinary approach. Careful attention to medical, pharmacologic, psychologic, and physical factors are the hallmarks of this type of treatment. The drugs now available provide marked relief to the majority of patients when therapy includes careful attention to the various dimensions of the pain syndrome. Although consistently effective drug therapy for all neuropathic and sympathetically maintained pain is not yet available, the probability of new NMDA antagonists being introduced in the next few years offers promise.
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PMID:Analgesic drugs for neuropathic and sympathetically maintained pain. 885 42

Orofacial pain is a common complaint, affecting the lives of millions of people around the world. Chronic orofacial pain often constitutes a challenging diagnostic problem that can be complicated by psychosocial factors and typically requires multidisciplinary treatment approaches. The fundamental prerequisite for successful management of orofacial pain is an accurate diagnosis. Generating a differential diagnosis, which will ultimately lead to a definite diagnosis, requires thorough knowledge of the diagnostic range of orofacial pain. There is a vast array of orofacial pain categories including: (1) musculoskeletal, (2) neuropathic, (3) vascular, (4) neurovascular, (5) idiopathic, (6) pain caused by local, distant, or systemic pathology, and (7) psychogenic. This article presents the salient clinical features and the therapeutic approaches for the various subtypes of musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. Musculoskeletal pain is the most prevalent orofacial pain, with temporomandibular disorders and tension-type headache being the main examples. Neuropathic pain develops secondary to neural injury and/or irritation and can be distinguished into episodic, including trigeminal neuralgia and glossopharyngeal neuralgia, as well as continuous, such as herpetic and postherpetic neuralgia, traumatic neuralgia, and Eagle's syndrome.
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PMID:Orofacial pain--Part I: Assessment and management of musculoskeletal and neuropathic causes. 1608 36

Neuropathic pain is difficult to treat. Recommended first-line treatments include tricyclic antidepressants and alpha2delta agonists pregabalin and gabapentin for multiple neuropathic conditions, the antidepressants duloxetine and venlafaxine in diabetic painful neuropathies and lidocaine patches for postherapetic neuralgia. Therapeutic prospects include focal therapy with sustained analgesic efficacy (capsaicin patches, botulinum toxin), treatments acting on new targets (i.e., cytokine inhibitors, metabotropic glutamate inhibitors, TRPV1 antagonists). The methodology of clinical trials also tends to take better into account the symptomatic profiles of patients, which should contribute to better prediction or responders to treatment.
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PMID:[Therapeutic advances in pharmaceutical treatment of neuropathic pain]. 2210 Mar 25

Pain is a natural protective mechanism and has a warning function signaling imminent or actual tissue damage. Neuropathic pain (NP) results from a dysfunction and derangement in the transmission and signal processing along the nervous system and it is a recognized disease in itself. The prevalence of NP is estimated to be between 6.9% and 10% in the general population. This condition can complicate the recovery from stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord lesions, and several neuropathies promoting persistent disability and poor quality of life. Subjects suffering from NP describe it as burning, itching, lancing, and numbness, but hyperalgesia and allodynia represent the most bothersome symptoms. The management of NP is a clinical challenge and several non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions have been proposed with variable benefits. Botulinum toxin (BTX) as an adjunct to other interventions can be a useful therapeutic tool for the treatment of disabled people. Although BTX-A is predominantly used to reduce spasticity in a neuro-rehabilitation setting, it has been used in several painful conditions including disorders characterized by NP. The underlying pharmacological mechanisms that operate in reducing pain are still unclear and include blocking nociceptor transduction, the reduction of neurogenic inflammation by inhibiting neural substances and neurotransmitters, and the prevention of peripheral and central sensitization. Some neurological disorders requiring rehabilitative intervention can show neuropathic pain resistant to common analgesic treatment. This paper addresses the effect of BTX-A in treating NP that complicates frequent disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system such as spinal cord injury, post-stroke shoulder pain, and painful diabetic neuropathy, which are commonly managed in a rehabilitation setting. Furthermore, BTX-A has an effect in relief pain that may characterize less common neurological disorders including post-traumatic neuralgia, phantom limb, and complex regional pain syndrome with focal dystonia. The use of BTX-A could represent a novel therapeutic strategy in caring for neuropathic pain whenever common pharmacological tools have been ineffective. However, large and well-designed clinical trials are needed to recommend BTX-A use in the relief of neuropathic pain.
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PMID:Botulinum Toxin Type A for the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain in Neuro-Rehabilitation. 2613 56

Neuropathic pain (NP), a common form of human pain, often poorly responds to analgesic medications. In this review the authors discuss the pathophysiology and conventional treatment of neuropathic pain and provide evidenced-based statements on the efficacy of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) in this form of pain. The level of efficacy for BoNT treatment in each category of NP is defined according to the published guidelines of the American Academy of Neurology. The data indicate that BoNT treatment (most of the literature is with onabotulinumtoxinA) is effective (level A evidence) in postherpetic neuralgia and trigeminal neuralgia. It is probably effective (level B) in posttraumatic neuralgia and painful diabetic neuropathy. The data on complex regional pain syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, occipital neuralgia, and phantom limb pain are preliminary and await conduction of randomized, blinded clinical trials. Much remains to be learned about the most-effective dosage and technique of injection, optimum dilutions, and differences among BoNTs in the treatment of neuropathic pain.
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PMID:Botulinum Toxin Treatment of Neuropathic Pain. 2686 99

Neuropathic pain (NP) is difficult to treat and is associated with a decline in quality of life. NP aetiologies are numerous and a number of pathologies display neuropathic characteristics. Of the various N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonists that are alternatives to be recommended in first-line NP treatment, memantine has the safest side-effect profile and has long been approved in Alzheimer's disease. The review covers memantine studies in postherpetic neuralgia, diabetic pain, postoperative pain, complex regional pain syndrome, chronic phantom limb pain, opioid-refractory pain and fibromyalgia. Results were inconclusive because of studies with poor levels of evidence, paucity of trials and small samples. Two recent randomized trials, however, showed significant efficacy of memantine: one demonstrated prophylactic effects against postoperative neuralgia and pain-associated psychological impairment; in the other, memantine improved pain and cognition in fibromyalgia. Both studies found no side effects or adverse events. Given the high rate of therapeutic failure in chronic states, often because of adverse events, the excellent benefit/risk ratio of memantine in these pilot studies encourages further exploration of this drug in NP prevention and in fibromyalgia in larger-scale studies.
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PMID:Memantine for the treatment of general neuropathic pain: a narrative review. 2880 70

Neuropathic pain is a common phenomenon that affects millions of people worldwide. Maxillofacial structures consist of various tissues that receive frequent stimulation during food digestion. The unique functions (masticatory process and facial expression) of the maxillofacial structure require the exquisite organization of both the peripheral and central nervous systems. Neuralgia is painful paroxysmal disorder of the head-neck region characterized by some commonly shared features such as the unilateral pain, transience and recurrence of attacks, and superficial and shock-like pain at a trigger point. These types of pain can be experienced after nerve injury or as a part of diseases that affect peripheral and central nerve function, or they can be psychological. Since the trigeminal and glossopharyngeal nerves innervate the oral structure, trigeminal and glossopharyngeal neuralgia are the most common syndromes following myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome. Nevertheless, misdiagnoses are common. The aim of this review is to discuss the currently available diagnostic procedures and treatment options for trigeminal neuralgia, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, and myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome.
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PMID:Trigeminal Neuralgia, Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia, and Myofascial Pain Dysfunction Syndrome: An Update. 2882 79