Understanding Pain in Diabetic Neuropathy
What Is the Next Step?
For patients that have PDN, there is little to do after the damage is done. There is no treatment that will correct the damage from diabetes. The body is able to heal a little once a problem is corrected, but it cannot heal completely. The symptoms of neuropathy will always be present. If a patient already has nerve damage the next step for them is to correct what they can. They need to get their symptoms under control to avoid any further damaged. The pain can then me managed through medications.
This pain is typically treated with antidepressants and anticonvulsants. There is more studies needed to learn about how well these medications work with patients and which treatments are ideal. Antidepressants were found to treat this pain slightly better than that of anticonvulsants in a study in 2010. Neither drug was perfect in treating this type of pain, but doctors began prescribing them without testing the sensory profiles that patients had.
Even though some medications did not react well with some patients does not mean that it will not work for another. Depending on how their pain and sensations are presenting themselves they will respond to different types of medications. This is when sensory profiles are most needed. Observing people who react well to a certain medication group and treating others with a similar sensory profile can cut down on how many medications need to be tested before finding the right now.
