The American Chronic Pain Association estimates that 15 million Americans suffer from nerve or neuropathic pain. This potentially debilitating affliction can affect any part of the body because the nervous system reaches from your head to your fingertips and to your toes.
Neuropathic pain is often described as a hot or burning sensation, numbness, electric shock or a stabbing pain; many patients with this pain in their extremities feel like they are walking on broken glass with each step. Two basic categories of nerve pain are central nervous system pain, involving the brain or spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system pain, involving nerves and nerve bundles stretching from the spine to each limb and throughout the body.
Nerve pain is primarily caused by damage or injury to the nervous system resulting from trauma, disease, or surgery. Neuropathic pain conditions may include diabetic neuropathy from vascular damage, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) syndrome after an injury, such as a traffic accident, or phantom limb pain where a patient feels intense pain in a limb after it has been amputated; central pain syndrome is often the result of injury to the brain or spinal cord.
Neuropathic pain can affect every part of your life by causing pain with simple movements like walking or grasping a cup of coffee. Many people with nerve pain conditions can’t get a good night’s sleep because of this chronic condition.
Treatment for nerve pain may include analgesic medications or other drugs, nerve blocks, electrical stimulation, biofeedback, counseling, acupuncture and/or surgery.
Neuropathic pain is often described as a hot or burning sensation, numbness, electric shock or a stabbing pain; many patients with this pain in their extremities feel like they are walking on broken glass with each step. Two basic categories of nerve pain are central nervous system pain, involving the brain or spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system pain, involving nerves and nerve bundles stretching from the spine to each limb and throughout the body.
Nerve pain is primarily caused by damage or injury to the nervous system resulting from trauma, disease, or surgery. Neuropathic pain conditions may include diabetic neuropathy from vascular damage, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) syndrome after an injury, such as a traffic accident, or phantom limb pain where a patient feels intense pain in a limb after it has been amputated; central pain syndrome is often the result of injury to the brain or spinal cord.
Neuropathic pain can affect every part of your life by causing pain with simple movements like walking or grasping a cup of coffee. Many people with nerve pain conditions can’t get a good night’s sleep because of this chronic condition.
Treatment for nerve pain may include analgesic medications or other drugs, nerve blocks, electrical stimulation, biofeedback, counseling, acupuncture and/or surgery.
