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Neuropathic pain is a very complicated experience that is often associated with tissue injury. When neuropathic pain occurs, sometimes the nerves themselves can be damaged or injured. This causes wrong signals to be transmitted to the brain. Quite often nerve fiber damage results in altered function of nerves not only within the damaged area but around it too.

What makes neuropathic pain so unpleasant is that it's always hard to find a proper cause of its development. It usually responds quite weak to standard pain medications and can become even more sever over time in contrast to musculoskeletal pain. In some cases it even results in serious disabilities. One of such cases is the so called phantom limb syndrome. This is when a certain part of the body is removed altogether, but the brain still receives pain signals from nerves that carried these signals before like it is the missing part that aches. It is the nerve signals that trigger this pain. The most common sources of neuropathic pain are:

• Alcohol abuse
• Amputation of limbs
• Back, leg, and hip disorders
• Cancer chemotherapy
• Diabetes
• Facial nerve issues
• HIV
• Multiple sclerosis
• Shingles
• Spine operations

Patients with neuropathic pain often report such experiences as shooting or burning pain, tingling, numbness.

When diagnosing neuropathic pain your physician is likely to conduct a thorough physical exam and a detailed interview. Be prepared to describe in detail your pain, how often it occurs, its localization and character. Sometimes an interview can be much more beneficial and informative than physical examination due to the peculiarities of this pain type.

Quite often neuropathic pain cannot be fully eliminated. It all depends on the treatment choice and effectiveness. Some specialists recommend using narcotic pain relievers and NSAIDs for this type of pain.  Others widely use muscle relaxants, anticonvulsants and antidepressants and report effectiveness. In case of other conditions such as diabetes, the higher efficacy in managing the condition could relieve neuropathic pain. Sometimes invasive methods and implants are a must. Such a wide range of treatments is explained by the complex characteristic of the pain origins, which are caused not by a concrete injury or damage, but rather by improper nervous signals.