Nerve pain is a condition that affects 7%-10% of the population in the country. It is also known as neuropathic pain and it is a highly subjective experience for each individual. There are several nerve pain relief treatments available, based on the diagnosis.
What is Nerve Pain?
The nerves in our body help us feel sensations like touch, heat, cold, pressure, pleasure, and pain. When they suffer damage due to disease or injuries, they may send random, inaccurate, or false signals to the pain centers in the brain and spinal cord.
Specific Neuropathy Types
There are different, specific forms of nerve pain:
Symptoms
People with this condition feel stabbing, shooting, burning or crawling sensations, along with other sensations like tingling, numbness, or a feeling of being pricked by pins and needles. Some people experience an electric-shock kind of sensation. People who suffer from this condition are over-sensitive to different sensations like cold, heat, and touch.
Even a casual brushing of the skin can cause enormous discomfort and pain. It is usually worse at night. Sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression are commonly experienced by those with nerve pain. Nerve pain is more commonly reported in women especially for patients aged above 50.
In other cases, there may be a complete lack of the response to pain even when injuries are suffered. This is commonly seen in conditions like diabetic neuropathy or vitamin B12 deficiency when the person does not feel any sensation of pain although injuries have occurred.
Diagnosis
General practitioners can diagnose nerve pain after a physical exam, consider your medical history, and perform certain tests. These include palpating the affected area with fingers, toothpicks, cold or hot objects, cotton-wool etc to gauge the severity.
Other tests like blood tests, MRI scan, skin biopsy, nerve-conduction, tissue and nerve biopsy can also help doctors to locate and identify the type of neuropathy that the patient suffers from.
Causes
When a part of the somatosensory nervous system that interprets and conveys the conscious perception of touch, pressure, pain, temperature, vibration, movement, pressure etc get damaged, the result is neuropathic pain. In rare cases, neuropathy can be inherited.
Typical causes include:
Modulation Mechanism
Pain is a highly subjective, individual response. Some patients experience intense and debilitating pain, while others may show a more moderate response. The response to medications may also be similarly modified and personalized in people. Pain expectancy is also something that is modified by individuals and those around them.
Experiments have been carried out using techniques like suggestion and placebo trials to create a pain-profile for all the affected people. This concept holds much potential for pain-management. Pain-profiles can help doctors to manage pain in postoperative conditions.
Treatment
Treatment for nerve pain for those seeking nerve pain relief is based on the accurate identification of the root cause of the pain. This is done by consulting a pain specialist. General practitioners can also treat pain with different pain relief medications. Other professionals who may be involved are psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses, physiotherapists etc.
Multidisciplinary Approach
Nerve pain treatments are available on various levels to provide nerve pain relief.