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The treatment of postherpetic neuralgia

From the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. C. Peter N. Watson, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, 3101 Bloor Street West, Suite 303, Toronto, ON, Canada M8X 2W2.

Postherpetic neuralgia, when defined as neuropathic pain persisting 1 month or longer after herpes zoster infection, affects about 10% of all patients who have contracted the disease.The incidence of postherpetic neuralgia increases with age; at age 60, about 50% of herpes zoster patients will suffer significant pain, and this proportion grows with subsequent decades. If therapy is carefully chosen and monitored, it is possible to give satisfactory relief, taking pain from severe to mild, to between 60 and 70% of patients. This article will review current treatment and focus on antidepressant drugs, treatments that are contentious and of current interest such as topical agents, and the use of opioids for this type of chronic neuropathic pain.

NEUROLOGY 1995;45(Suppl 8): S58-S60