Neuropathic pain
Burning, shooting, or electric-shock-like pain arising from the nervous system itself, with the underlying cause identified before symptomatic treatment begins.
What it is
Neuropathic pain arises from a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory nervous system itself — peripheral (e.g. diabetic neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, nerve compression) or central (e.g. post-stroke, spinal cord injury) — and is clinically distinguished from musculoskeletal pain by its character and underlying mechanism. Because the causes and optimal treatments differ substantially by type, identifying the underlying cause precedes symptomatic treatment.
Common symptoms & concerns
- Burning, shooting, stabbing, or electric-shock-like sensations, often with tingling or numbness
- Allodynia (pain from a normally non-painful stimulus) or hyperalgesia (exaggerated pain response)
- Distribution following a nerve or dermatomal pattern rather than a joint or muscle group
- Common underlying types include painful diabetic neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, phantom limb pain, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, and trigeminal neuralgia
Assessment & care
Assessment approach
Assessment identifies the underlying cause of your neuropathic pain before symptomatic treatment is finalised, since medication choice and approach depend substantially on the type and origin.
In-scope care
In-scope care includes neuropathic-pain medication management, TENS, and dry needling, with a functional-medicine nutrient workup available to check for correctable contributors such as B12 deficiency. Correcting an underlying nutritional or metabolic contributor where present can improve the ceiling of what symptomatic treatments achieve.
Treatments used
Related questions
It's commonly described as burning, shooting, stabbing, or electric-shock-like, often with tingling or numbness, and it can follow a nerve or dermatomal pattern rather than a joint or muscle distribution.
Yes. Medication choice and treatment approach depend on the underlying cause, which is why identifying that cause comes before symptomatic treatment is finalised.
Yes, deficiencies such as B12 and other metabolic factors can contribute to neuropathy, which is why a nutrient workup is sometimes part of assessment.