Nerve Pain

What is nerve pain?

Nerve pain, or neuropathy, is pain that originates in your nerves. Nerve pain is generally due to damage of a specific nerve, or dysfunction that causes the nerve to send out pain signals to your brain without a good reason.

Your body contains three types of nerves:

• Autonomic nerves – controls involuntary functions like digestion
• Motor nerves – controls movement
• Sensory nerves – relays information from all over your body

Sensory nerves send pain signals to your brain so you can respond to a potential threat, but when you have nerve pain, something has gone wrong and the nerves are relaying pain messages when there are no potential threats.

In addition to pain, sensory nerve damage or dysfunction can cause sensitivity, numbness, or tingling, prickling, or burning sensations. You may experience one or a combination of these symptoms alongside your nerve pain.

What causes nerve pain?

Certain drugs can cause nerve pain, including some used in chemotherapy for cancer patients and in treating HIV. Ingestion of substances like lead and mercury or deficiencies of vitamins B6 and B12 are also potential causes of nerve pain.

Nerve pain can be a side effect of a number of diseases, including:

• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Myasthenia gravis
• Lupus
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease)
• Lyme disease
• Herpes 
• HIV
• Hepatitis C

Nerve pain can also be due to compression of the nerves, crush injuries, and conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), in which nerves become pinched or trapped. 

How is nerve pain treated?

At Pain Physicians NY, the team creates a personalized treatment plan for patients suffering from nerve pain. They take into account the source of your pain and your individual lifestyle when determining the best option.

The team ensures you are receiving the best treatment for any underlying problems that may be causing you pain. If you have diabetic neuropathy, for example, managing your diabetes effectively can have a significant impact on the severity of your neuropathy.

For conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, or peripheral neuralgia, you may need to change your medication if it’s causing or worsening your pain. Physical therapy and chiropractic treatment can help if you have compressed nerves.

Nerve block injections or implantable devices, such as a spinal cord stimulator, that disrupt the signals sent from your nerves to your brain may also be helpful.

If you’re living with nerve pain, take advantage of the effective treatment options available at Pain Physicians NY. Schedule an appointment online or call the office today.