Treatment options include steps to quit alcohol use and managing symptoms of the disease. Alcoholic neuropathy damages the nerves due to prolonged and excessive alcohol consumption. This damage prevents the nerves from communicating information from one body area to another.
Antidepressants for the alleviation of neuropathic pain symptoms
This suggests that these pathways are potential targets for novel pharmacological agents for the treatment of inflammatory as well as neuropathic pain [71]. The primary axonal damage and secondary demyelination of motor and sensory fibres (especially small diameter fibres) are considered alcohol neuropathy stages to constitute the morphologic basis of alcoholic damage to nerve tissue at present [20]. The demyelination is explained as the result of a slowing down (decceleration) of axoplasmic flow and a degradation of the quality of biological properties of axonal enzymes and proteins.
Causes of Alcoholic Neuropathy
Dina et al. [16] maintained rats on a diet to simulate chronic alcohol consumption in humans and found mechanical hyperalgesia by the fourth week which was maximal at 10 weeks. Thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia were also present with decreased mechanical threshold of C-fibres. The hyperalgesia was acutely attenuated by intradermal injection of nonselective PKC or selective PKCε inhibitors injected at the site of nociceptive testing. Miyoshi et al. [15] found that a significant decrease in the mechanical nociceptive threshold was observed after 5 weeks of chronic ethanol consumption in rats. Injection of (S)-2,6-diamino-N-[[1-(oxotridecyl)-2-piperidinyl]methyl] hexanamide dihydrochloride (NPC15437), a selective PKC inhibitor, once a day for a week after 4 weeks of ethanol treatment. Moreover, phosphorylated PKC was significantly increased in the spinal cord following chronic ethanol consumption.
Medical Professionals
A 2014 study estimated that as many as 10 percent of Americans experience some form of neuropathic pain. These include vascular disorders (which affect your body’s blood vessels), kidney problems, cancer, benign tumors, and other diseases. Car accidents, sports injuries, broken bones, or even surgery can cause nerve damage. These are the automatic functions of your body that happen without your thinking or even being aware of them. They include things like sweating, digestion, blood pressure control, etc.
Relationship between alcoholic neuropathy and thiamine deficient neuropathy
Involvement of the sympatho-adrenal and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in alcoholic peripheral neuropathy
- Superficial sensation, especially nociception, was predominantly impaired and painful symptoms were the primary complaint in most patients in this group.
- Thus, further preclinical and clinical studies are required to assess of this molecule in alcoholic neuropathy.
- Such articles are not suitable for any (self-) diagnosis and treatment of individual illnesses and medical indications.
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as Aleve and Motrin, are sometimes used to treat neuropathic pain.
- Subperineurial oedema is more prominent in thiamine deficient neuropathy, whereas segmental de/remyelination resulting from widening of consecutive nodes of Ranvier is more frequent in alcoholic neuropathy [3].