US researchers have identified several factors, like old age, female sex, more severe rash, severe pain or tingling sensations when shingles began, which are associated with prolonged pain after shingles.
US researchers have identified several factors that are associated with prolonged pain after shingles. Shingles is a painful rash caused by re-activation, in nerve tissue, of chicken pox virus acquired earlier in life. A drug (acyclovir) can help control the rash, but the disease usually resolves on its own after a few weeks. However, it is not uncommon for the pain to persist after the rash is gone.Researchers from the University of Rochester in New York, USA, looked for risk factors by analysing data from 965 shingles patients who were enrolled in drug trials. All of the patients were enrolled within 72 hours after the rash began.
Older age, female sex, greater rash severity, severe pain when shingles began, and the presence of early warning symptoms were identified as risk factors for prolonged pain after shingles. These factors include the presence of early warning symptoms, such as tingling sensations, and severe pain when the shingles began. The presence of early warning symptoms was present in 94 percent of patients with prolonged pain. In future research, it will be important to examine whether additional risk factors and various methods of weighting risk factors can increase the accuracy of this prediction.
Neurology,
May 2004
May 2004
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