Why does nerve pain occur?

When a nerve is damaged, incorrect signals may occur in this and the nearby nerves. When nerves in the pain system transmit such signals, the brain perceives that something happens in the area that the nerve originally came from. After an amputation of the arm, one can thus have a feeling of pain in the thumb, even though the impulses that reach the brain start in the cut nerve endings. Similarly, after an injury to the spinal cord, one may have a feeling of diffuse leg pain. The damaged nerves can also be extra sensitive so that a light touch causes the nerve to transmit many impulses that are then perceived by the brain as a painful touch. 

Where does nerve pain typically occur?

Neves pain occurs in areas where sensory sense has changed due to the underlying disease / injury. If you have nerve pain after a blood clot in the brain, the pain often occurs on one side of the body, while pain due to nerve inflammation due to diabetes often occurs in both feet and perhaps both hands. After amputation of an arm one can experience pain in the stump (blunt pain) and also pain in the missing arm or hand (phantom pain). Nerve pain may occur immediately after the damage to the nervous system, but may also occur months after the injury.

How Does Nerve Pain Feel?

Nerve pain is often burning, tingling / stinging, spinning, tightening, cutting, icy or chasing, but varies from person to person. In some people the pain is constant, while others experience seizures of pain. In some cases, increased sensitivity is described in the skin, so that quite light touch or contact with something cold feels uncomfortable or painful. This phenomenon is referred to as allodynia. This can in some cases cause you to not have to wear clothes in the area or that it hurts to bathe. You will often find that the nerve pain is exacerbated by illness, in the cold, by stress or the like. Nerve pain can be very violent. They can, in some cases, be accompanied by depression and may give rise to the fact that one cannot take care of his job or do ordinary household tasks.

How does the doctor diagnose?

The doctor will prepare a careful medical history and examine whether there is any change in sensation in the area of ​​pain and other signs of damage to the nervous system. In some cases, it will be obvious that there is a nerve injury, for example after an operation, but in other cases, further investigations are needed, for example, a scan or an examination of the nerve conduction rate.

What are the treatment options?

In some cases, the underlying disease of the nervous system can be treated (for example, by surgery for disc herniation), but often there will be symptomatic treatment. Common painkillers will often have no effect on nerve pain. Nerve pain is instead treated with medication for epilepsy or depression because these drugs have an inhibitory effect on the overactive pain pathways. The list below includes various treatment options for chronic pain. What treatments are offered depend on the cause of the pain and the effect of the pain on the mental and social conditions:

medicine

operation

prosthesis

training and physiotherapy

mental health counseling

In some cases, the nerve pain decreases or disappears, but nerve pain is in many cases chronic. Since one cannot say in advance who will have the effect of a given treatment, many will experience having to try different drugs. It is very individual how much pain relief one can achieve without getting unpleasant side effects from the medicine. Not everyone with nerve pain will have pain relief, and many will only be able to achieve partial pain relief, perhaps a 30% reduction in their pain.

What can you do yourself?

One needs to be aware of whether there are factors that aggravate the pain. Some should be aware of trying to avoid stress or cold. Regular night’s sleep is important. If the skin is very sensitive in a delimited area, a tight band may in some cases help. Learning different relaxation techniques and learning to abstract from the pain can also be helpful, for example, by focusing on something else.