Painful neuropathies

Abstract

Pain following peripheral nerve lesion appears to be a paradox because damage of primary afferent nerve fibres carrying nociceptive information should result in hypoalgesia. The very existence of neuropathic pain therefore implies fundamental changes of nociceptive processing and there have been considerable advances in the understanding of factors that precipitate neuropathic pain. This knowledge has already been harnessed for the development of novel analgesic therapies to supplement traditional treatment with anticonvulsant and antidepressants drugs which has shown clear effectiveness in systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials.