Nerve Pains: It’s different and doesn’t respond to routine pain treatment

Sep 25, 2022 Dr Zulfikar Bux, Features / Columnists

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 By Dr. Zulfikar Bux

Emergency Medicine specialist

Kaieteur News – Do you or someone you know suffer from pains that do not respond to routine painkillers? Well, it may be possible that neuralgia or better known as nerve pain is the cause. Unfortunately, the mechanism for nerve pains are different and can often be missed and go untreated or inappropriately treated for prolonged periods. Today, I will expand more on this condition that is slowly becoming a more common cause for pain in many.

 What is nerve pain?

Nerve pain, also called neuralgia or neuropathic pain, occurs when a health condition affects the nerves that carry sensation to the brain. It is a particular type of pain that feels different from other kinds of pain. When a nerve is also damaged from aging or exposure to chemicals, it causes excitation of signals around that area and can lead to debilitating pains.

 What are the different types of nerve pains?

There are many different types of nerve pains but below are the more common causes of them:

• post-herpetic — this can happen after you’ve had shingles (herpes zoster) and affects the same area as the shingles rash
• trigeminal— causing pain in the jaw or cheek
• occipital — causing pain at the base of your skull that can spread to the back of your head
• pudendal — causing pain in the ‘saddle area’ between the legs

 What are the symptoms of nerve pain?

Nerve pain often feels like a shooting, stabbing or burning sensation. Patients often describe it as a blazing pain that is sometimes mixed with numbness or loss of sensation around the affected area. Sometimes, it can be as sharp and sudden as an electric shock. Persons affected by neuropathic pain are often very sensitive to touch or cold and can experience pain as a result of stimuli that would not normally be painful, such as brushing the skin. It’s often worse at night. It might be mild or it might be severe. People who have nerve pain often find that it interferes with important parts of life such as sleep, sex, work and exercise.

What causes nerve pain?

Nerve pain can be due to problems in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), or in the nerves that run from there to the muscles and organs. It is usually caused by disease or injury.

Common causes include:

• an injury to the brain, spine or nerves
• poor blood supply to the nerves
• heavy drinking
• phantom pain after an amputation
• vitamin B12 or thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency
• certain medications such as chemotherapy drugs

Conditions that can cause nerve pain include:

• infections such as shingles and HIV/AIDS
• multiple sclerosis
• diabetes
• stroke
• cancer and its treatment with radiation, surgery or chemotherapy
• trapped nerves, such as in carpal tunnel syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Sciatica

How is nerve pain diagnosed?

The main way your doctor will diagnose nerve pain is by listening to you and examining you.

In the examination, they will probably test your nerves by testing the strength of your muscles, checking your reflexes, and by seeing how sensitive it is to touch. Your doctor may order tests for specific conditions that may be causing your nerve pain but there isn’t a specific test that can diagnose nerve pains; it depends on your doctor taking the clues from you and putting it together to determine that you’re getting nerve pains. How to buy Tramadol online? https://pleasantville-pharmacy.com/tramadol

 How is nerve pain treated?

There are many ways to treat nerve pain. Treating the underlying cause, if there is one, is the first step. Painkillers and a range of different medicines can help, as can non-drug treatments like exercise, acupuncture and relaxation techniques. Nerve pain can be difficult to treat. Any underlying conditions such as diabetes and Vitamin B12 deficiency can be managed. Otherwise, treatments aim to directly ease the pain. Options include medicines and non-medicine strategies.

Medicines

Routine pain medications are not as effective for nerve pains because they were not designed for such. Therefore pain relievers such as diclofenac, panadol, tylenol, advil, ibuprofen, tramadol, etc. will not work properly for nerve pains.

Antidepressant and anti-seizure medications have been found to be more effective against nerve pains because their mechanism of action focuses more on the nervous system. Antidepressants such as amitriptyline and duloxetine and anti-seizure medications such as gabapentin, pregabalin and carbamazepine are the more effective medications against nerve pains.

 Non-medicine treatments

Non-medicine treatments can help people to understand and cope with the pain. They include:

• education and counselling
• exercise
• acupuncture
• relaxation techniques
• psychological treatments to help you feel in control of your pain and reduce distress
• transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to block the transmission of pain sensations to your brain

If you are affected by pains that have not responded to conventional pain treatment, ask your doctor if you can be screened for nerve pains. It may help to shed some light on treatment options to help your suffering.

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