What is Neuropathy?

What is Neuropathy?
Neuropathy is a condition describing chronic pain caused by peripheral nerves damage, sometimes accompanied by tissue injury and frequently associated with an underlying disease. The most frequent causes of neuropathy are diabetes, alcoholism, AIDS, chemotherapy, amputations or other kind of traumas. Sometimes there is no obvious cause for the neuropathic pain and these cases are referred to as idiopathic, as the doctor has no clue why the patient developed this serious condition.
In this particular cases the patient’s situation is aggravated by the fact he can’t receive the best treatment until the underlying causes are revealed. All the medic can do is to prescribe some painkillers to keep the pain bearable and to help the patient accomplish basic actions, the sheer pain would otherwise prevent him to perform. If the causes are not always easy to determine, the symptoms are much clearer and include numbness in their limbs, shooting or burning pain as well as muscle weakness, cramps, and spasms.
All these point towards neuropathy, but it is not that simple to diagnose it, since it is not a single disease, but rather a symptom for another disease such as diabetes. In fact up to 50% of diabetes patients wind up suffering from some form of neuropathy, ranging from mild ones to more severe. If the doctor can determine the causes and put the right diagnose he can help the patient in many ways.
Treatment for this condition takes many forms depending on how severe it is, ranging from strict diets, creams and pills to antidepressants, topical anesthetic such as lidocaine, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or even stronger pain killers. The problem is that for the time being there is no 100% effective treatment for neuropathy and sadly, the chances for the patient to get better are smaller than the chances this condition will aggravate over time.