Wei Laboratories, Inc.
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| Email: wei@weilab.com |
What is Post-Herpetic Neuralgia?
Postherpetic neuralgia (post-her-PET-ic noo-RAL-jah) is a painful condition affecting your nerve fibers and skin. The
burning pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia can be severe enough to interfere with sleep and appetite.
Postherpetic neuralgia is a complication of shingles, which is caused by the chickenpox virus. Most cases of shingles
clear up within a few weeks. But if the pain lasts long after the shingles rash and blisters have disappeared, it's called
postherpetic neuralgia.
The risk of postherpetic neuralgia increases with age, primarily affecting people over the age of 60. Effective treatment
of postherpetic neuralgia is difficult, and the pain can last for months or even years.
Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of postherpetic neuralgia are generally limited to the area of your skin where the shingles
outbreak first occurred. This is most commonly in a band around your trunk, usually on just one side of your body.
They may include:
• Pain
• Sensitivity to light touch
• Itching and numbness
• Weakness or paralysis
Causes
During an initial infection of chickenpox, some of the virus can remain dormant in some of your body's nerve cells.
Years later, the virus may reactivate, causing shingles.
Postherpetic neuralgia occurs if your nerve fibers are damaged during an outbreak of shingles. Damaged fibers aren't
able to send messages from your skin to your brain as they normally do. Instead, the messages become confused and
exaggerated, causing chronic, often excruciating pain that may persist for months — or even years.
Western Medicine Treatment
There is no single treatment that relieves postherpetic neuralgia in all people. In many cases, it may take a
combination of treatments to reduce the pain.
• Lidocaine skin patches - These are small, bandage-like patches that contain the topical, pain-relieving
medication lidocaine. These patches can be cut to fit only the affected area. You apply the patches, available by
prescription, directly to painful skin to deliver temporary relief.
• Tricyclic antidepressants - Antidepressants such as nortriptyline and amitriptyline affect key brain chemicals that
play a role in both depression and how your body interprets pain. Doctors typically prescribe antidepressants for
postherpetic neuralgia in smaller doses than they do for depression.
• Certain anticonvulsants - Anti-seizure medications also can lessen the pain associated with postherpetic
neuralgia. These medications stabilize abnormal electrical activity in your nervous system caused by injured
nerves. Doctors may prescribe gabapentin (Neurontin), pregabalin (Lyrica) or another anticonvulsant to help
control burning and pain.
• Opioid painkillers - Some people may need prescription-strength pain medications containing tramadol (Ultram,
Ryzolt), oxycodone (Percocet) or morphine. However, these drugs can be addictive. Although this risk is generally
low, discuss it with your doctor.
Alternative Medicine
There is a significant progress using alternative medicine in this area.
If you want a referral of an expert alternative medicine practitioner in your
local area, please use our free referral service by calling our toll-free at
1-888-919-1188, or e-mail us to wei@weilab.com, or click the button
at the right to have us contact you.
Information collected from mayoclinic.com
Postherpetic neuralgia (post-her-PET-ic noo-RAL-jah) is a painful condition affecting your nerve fibers and skin. The
burning pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia can be severe enough to interfere with sleep and appetite.
Postherpetic neuralgia is a complication of shingles, which is caused by the chickenpox virus. Most cases of shingles
clear up within a few weeks. But if the pain lasts long after the shingles rash and blisters have disappeared, it's called
postherpetic neuralgia.
The risk of postherpetic neuralgia increases with age, primarily affecting people over the age of 60. Effective treatment
of postherpetic neuralgia is difficult, and the pain can last for months or even years.
Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of postherpetic neuralgia are generally limited to the area of your skin where the shingles
outbreak first occurred. This is most commonly in a band around your trunk, usually on just one side of your body.
They may include:
• Pain
• Sensitivity to light touch
• Itching and numbness
• Weakness or paralysis
Causes
During an initial infection of chickenpox, some of the virus can remain dormant in some of your body's nerve cells.
Years later, the virus may reactivate, causing shingles.
Postherpetic neuralgia occurs if your nerve fibers are damaged during an outbreak of shingles. Damaged fibers aren't
able to send messages from your skin to your brain as they normally do. Instead, the messages become confused and
exaggerated, causing chronic, often excruciating pain that may persist for months — or even years.
Western Medicine Treatment
There is no single treatment that relieves postherpetic neuralgia in all people. In many cases, it may take a
combination of treatments to reduce the pain.
• Lidocaine skin patches - These are small, bandage-like patches that contain the topical, pain-relieving
medication lidocaine. These patches can be cut to fit only the affected area. You apply the patches, available by
prescription, directly to painful skin to deliver temporary relief.
• Tricyclic antidepressants - Antidepressants such as nortriptyline and amitriptyline affect key brain chemicals that
play a role in both depression and how your body interprets pain. Doctors typically prescribe antidepressants for
postherpetic neuralgia in smaller doses than they do for depression.
• Certain anticonvulsants - Anti-seizure medications also can lessen the pain associated with postherpetic
neuralgia. These medications stabilize abnormal electrical activity in your nervous system caused by injured
nerves. Doctors may prescribe gabapentin (Neurontin), pregabalin (Lyrica) or another anticonvulsant to help
control burning and pain.
• Opioid painkillers - Some people may need prescription-strength pain medications containing tramadol (Ultram,
Ryzolt), oxycodone (Percocet) or morphine. However, these drugs can be addictive. Although this risk is generally
low, discuss it with your doctor.
Alternative Medicine
There is a significant progress using alternative medicine in this area.
If you want a referral of an expert alternative medicine practitioner in your
local area, please use our free referral service by calling our toll-free at
1-888-919-1188, or e-mail us to wei@weilab.com, or click the button
at the right to have us contact you.
Information collected from mayoclinic.com
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