![]() ![]() ![]() There are other newer drugs, such as pregabalin, which reduce irritability in injured nerve calls. The most common of these is amitriptyline, a drug which has been used at higher doses for many years as an antidepressant it works by acting on the communication between nerve cells. But there are ways of reducing or even banishing the pain using drugs specifically designed to work on neuropathic (nerve cell-generated) pain. ![]() Suffering long-term bouts of pain over several years is miserable, especially as ordinary pain-killing tablets provide no relief. It's not clear why this pain occurs, although it's thought it's caused by damage to the nerve cells. The blisters contain the chicken pox virus and anyone in contact with the rash will develop chicken pox after 14 days or so if they are not already immune.īut you do not develop shingles after contact with a person with shingles because your body produces the virus itself.Įven when the shingles have cleared up, the effects can be long-lasting, as you have discovered. If this is the case, the rash will extend from the spine, around in a swathe to the front.Īlong with the rash there is often a high temperature and headache (you feel flu-like). The rash can occur anywhere on the body, although most commonly on the chest or abdomen - in line with the fact that in chicken pox, the spots are usually more numerous on the trunk. The rash affects the area of the skin supplied by the sensory nerve along which the virus has travelled. Then the characteristic rash develops - this starts as an area of redness which turns into blisters over about seven days. The immune system trapped the virus in the nerve cells close to the spinal cord, at a site called the dorsal root ganglion.Īnything later in life that reduces your immunity - age, stress or major illness - can allow the virus to travel back to the skin, along a sensory nerve.įirst you experience a bout of burning or itching pain, often hard to explain, lasting several days. The original infection was with the chicken pox virus (most likely in childhood). The infection itself is not something you 'catch' from someone else, but has been lying dormant in your body for years and has now been re-activated. Shingles is a virus infection of the skin one in five of us will get it at some stage in life. It's usually only older patients who are affected, although it's not clear why. The pain that you've had to tolerate for so long is called post-herpetic neuralgia - herpes zoster being the medical term for shingles.Īs you have found, the pain can be severe. Severe pain after shingles is called post-herpetic neuralgiaĭr Scurr says. ![]()
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