Neuropathic Pain: From Causes to Treatment End-to-End Guide
People who experience neuropathic pain deal with immense, shooting pain, like someone is hammering on their head. The pain may be consistent or appear intermittently. Neuropathic pain constantly pinches you with a feeling of numbness, tingling, or a loss of sensation. A chronic or progressive nerve disease most often causes it. However, it may also occur as a result of injury or infection. If you are dealing with chronic neuropathic pain, it can extend at any point in time without an evident pain-inducing factor or circumstances.
Acute neuropathic pain, although rare, can also occur in some circumstances. Non-neuropathic pain (nociceptive pain) is the effect of severe infection or injury. For instance, if you accidentally drop a big book on your foot, your nervous system responds with pain signals as soon as you drop the book. In neuropathy, pain is not usually caused by something happening or some injury. Somewhat, the body entirely sends pain signals to your brain impulsively. It tends to get more painful over time.
Approximately 3 out of 5 people are suffering from neuropathic chronic pain. So, knowing the underlying reasons can assist you in identifying improved means and methods of preventing the pain due to neuropathy from worsening.
What are the Imperative Symptoms of Neuropathic Pain?
Here we have mentioned the neuropathic pain symptoms that you must notice:
1. Spontaneous Pain
It is one of those kinds of pain that occurs for no specific cause. It might contain a feeling like a stabbing, electric shock, or burning-like ache, numbness, a “pins and needles” sensation, or tingling.
2. Allodynia
It happens when causally painless stimuli, like pressure, brushing against your skin, or cold, cause you to feel an immense amount of pain. It feels like a severe sensitivity when you touch.
3. Hypoalgesia
This happens when a painful trigger point that should normally hurt decreases the pain reaction. (For instance, the pinprick should be painful, but it is not.)
4. Hyperalgesia
It occurs when normally painful trigger points, like pinpricks or heat, cause an immense amount of pain sensation. For instance, the pain hurts more than you expect.
5. Insomnia
It happens when you are facing sleeping difficulties. Additionally, it has emotional tension or stress due to disturbed pain and sleep.
What are the Primary Causes of Neuropathic Pain?
If you are going through neuropathic pain for a very long time, you should look into the root causes, which include:
- Diabetes
- HIV/AIDS
- Alcohol use disorder
- Complicated regional pain syndrome
- Central nervous system disorders, like Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disorder
- Shingles
Other Major Causes of Neuropathic Pain Include:
- Radiation Therapy
- Chemotherapy Drugs (Vincristine, Cisplatin, and Paclitaxel)
- Spinal Nerve inflammation or compression
- Amputation
- Tumours
- Trauma or Surgeries with Resulting Nerve Damage
- Vitamin B Deficiency
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Thyroid Problems
- Facial Nerve Problems
- Arthritis in the Spine
How Do We Diagnose Neuropathic Pain?
At Kush Orthopedic & Health Centre, our top-notch doctors will review your entire medical history and do a physical examination of the part where you are feeling immense pain. Our knowing or suspecting your nerve injury, we will look into the typical neuropedic pain symptoms that you are facing. After all the procedures, our skilled and experienced doctor will approach the right treatment.
Treatment of Neuropathic Pain
One aim of treating neuropathic pain is to determine the underlying condition or disease causing the pain. One significant aim is that your physician will strive to alleviate the pain, allow you to maintain normal capabilities despite the pain, and enhance your quality of life. The most frequent treatments for neuropathic pain are:
1. Over-The-Counter Pain Reliever
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including Aleve and Motrin, are occasionally prescribed to alleviate neuropathic pain. Yet, most individuals find that these drugs aren’t effective for neuropathic pain since they don’t address the cause of the pain.
2. Prescription Medication
Opioid pain medications do not generally decrease neuropathic pain like they decrease other kinds of pain. In addition, physicians won’t prescribe them because they might be afraid a person will get addicted. Topical painkillers can also be used. These are lidocaine patches, capsaicin patches, and ointments and creams that require a prescription.
3. Antidepressant Drugs
This medication has shown great results when treating the imperative symptoms of neuropathic pain. However, here are two common antidepressant drugs that are prescribed to people with this pain:
- Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors
- Tricyclic Antidepressants
4. Anticonvulsants
It is often used to treat neuropathic patients. Therefore, gabapentinoids are the most prescribed medications for neuropathic pain. Likewise, it is not known why anti-seizure medications are effective for this disorder, but scientists think the medications disrupt pain signals and prevent defective transmissions.
5. Nerve Blocks
The physician may inject steroids, local anesthetics, or other pain medications into the nerves that are believed to be the reason behind misbehaving pain signals. These blocks are temporary, so they have to be repeated to continue to be effective.
What are the Pointers You Should Consider to Prevent Neuropathic Pain?
You can not always avoid nerve pain from occurring. However, here we have mentioned some effective ways that will help reduce the overall chances of neuropathic pain.
- Create a routine for regular exercise that suits you.
- Prevent the consumption of drinks that contain alcohol.
- Include fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean protein more in your diet.
- If you have diabetes, check your blood sugar frequently and pay extra special attention to your feet.
- Quit smoking
When to Visit Your Nearest Health Provider?
If you notice nerve damage in your body, it’s time to search for the “best health centre near me”. Furthermore, here are some major symptoms that indicate you must visit your healthcare provider.
- Uncontrolled twitching
- Muscle weakness
- Repeatedly dropping things when holding
- Tingling
- Numbness
It’s Time to Wrap Things Up!
Neuropathic Pain is one of the unbearable pains that individuals have to experience once in their lifetime. Nevertheless, we hope that you have gotten all the precise details that will help you notice the symptom before it causes a huge health problem for you. Furthermore, if you are searching for “orthopedic doctor near me” for a while, it’s time to end your research because Kush Orthopedic & Health Centre is the best healthcare provider for you. We have a team of experts and skilled professionals who ensure to provide cutting-edge assistance for the betterment of your health. So, whether you are dealing with neuropathic pain or cervical spondylosis, we’ve got you covered! So, do not waste another minute and book your consultation online with a snap of your finger. Let us be your trusted health companion.
Frequently Asked Questions
The four major medications for individuals who are suffering from neuropathic pain are:
- Duloxetine
- Gabapentin
- Pregabalin
- Amitriptyline
Here is the list of seven vitamins that treat nerve damage:
- N-Acetyl Cysteine
- Glutamine
- Glutathione
- Magnesium
- B-Complex Vitamins
- Alpha-Lipoic Acid
- Magnesium
It is best to opt for cold when the pain is still intense and move on to heat slightly once that sharpness reduces. The heal will boost blood flow and help tissues heal quickly.