Current pain and headache reports
-
The scope of this review is to describe the epidemiology, physiology, symptomatology, and treatment of diabetic painful neuropathy, which is a common complication of diabetes with significant morbidity. This article focuses on treatment options. Various clinical trials of several classes of medications (eg, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and topical medications) and alternative treatments (eg, acupuncture, electrostimulation, magnets) are reviewed. ⋯ However, a number of these treatments have significant side effects, which are noted, that limit their use. As the understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms of diabetic neuropathy improves, new medications are under investigation, which are reviewed in this article. There is great hope that the future may hold treatments that would prevent nerve damage.
-
Curr Pain Headache Rep · Jun 2003
ReviewPharmacotherapy for pain in rheumatologic conditions: the neuropathic component.
Nociceptive and neuropathic types of pain occur in rheumatologic conditions. Most clinicians are familiar with the former, but many are not aware of the prevalence of the latter. ⋯ Common rheumatologic conditions and their pathophysiology in relation to pain mechanisms also are described. Pharmacotherapeutic recommendations for the treatment of both types of pain in the common rheumatologic conditions are presented.
-
Pseudomigraine with temporary neurologic symptoms and lymphocytic pleocytosis is a self-limited syndrome of unknown origin characterized by headache accompanied by transient neurologic symptoms and cerebrospinal fluid lymphocytosis. Patients with this condition are between 15 and 40 years of age. The syndrome is more frequent in men. ⋯ Single photon emission computed tomography reveals transient focal areas of decreased uptake consistent with the clinical symptoms. It is possible that pseudomigraine with temporary neurologic symptoms and lymphocytic pleocytosis could result from an activation of the immune system secondary to a recent viral infection, which would produce antibodies against neuronal or vascular antigens. This autoimmune attack may induce an aseptic leptomeningeal vasculitis, accounting for the headache and the transient symptoms likely through a spreading depression-like mechanism.
-
Curr Pain Headache Rep · Jun 2003
ReviewComplex regional pain syndrome: a review of evidence-supported treatment options.
Complex regional pain syndrome consists of pain and other symptoms that are unexpectedly severe or protracted after an injury. In type II complex regional pain syndrome, major nerve injury, often with motor involvement, is the cause; in complex regional pain syndrome I, the culprit is a more occult lesion, often a lesser injury that predominantly affects unmyelinated axons. In florid form, disturbances of vasoregulation (eg, edema) and abnormalities of other innervated tissues (skin, muscle, bone) can appear. ⋯ Some common treatments (eg, local anesthetic blockade of sympathetic ganglia) are not supported by the aggregate of published studies and should be used less frequently. Other treatments with encouraging published results (eg, neural stimulators) are not used often enough. We hope to encourage clinicians to rely more on evidence-supported treatments for complex regional pain syndrome.
-
New imaging technology allows us to study neurologic disorders that have had no previous structural basis. There have been recent reports on the involvement of nociceptive pathways in daily headache. A systematic review was performed using key words "chronic daily headache" and "imaging." This paper reviews the literature on imaging studies performed on daily headache with emphasis on the new imaging technology.