Drug trials in neuropathy

Abstract

Drug trials in peripheral neuropathy have used different outcome measures, the choice of which has depended on the nature of the neuropathy and the hypothesis being tested. The majority of the published trials have relied on measuring impairment (reflecting the desirable sensitivity of these outcome measures), and only few have used measures of disability or handicap. Drug trials in inflammatory neuropathy (GBS and CIDP), diabetic, paraproteinaemic, and toxic neuropathies have been discussed in this chapter, to illustrate the different therapeutic approaches used in the literature. Future drug trials in peripheral neuropathy should pay more attention to disability and handicap measures.