Antidepressants Might Effectively Treat Chronic Pain

Recent research highlighted in NewsMax Health shows that some antidepressants may help relieve chronic pain in cancer patients.  According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, an antidepressant drug helped relieve symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, chronic pain relating to nerve damage in the limbs, in cancer patients.  Out of over 100 patients who took the antidepressant for over a month, 59% experienced some level of pain relief, compared to 38% who were given a placebo.  

Antidepressants are sometimes used to treat other ailments, such as diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and arthritic chronic pain.  This information is especially important, considering that between 20-40% of cancer patients treated with certain drugs will most likely develop neuropathy.  All patients included in the recent study had persistent chronic pain that lasted over three months after their chemo treatments had stopped.  According to the article, "of the patients given [the antidepressant] first, the average pain score fell by a point on a scale of 0 to 10. That's considered to be a "clinically important" change."  These findings might also suggest that antidepressants might be an effective way to treat chronic pain from other injuries, such as musculoskeletal pain or from a spinal cord/brain injury.  

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer serving Blair and the seven surrounding counties in central Pennsylvania.  He takes cases for clients who are experiencing chronic pain as the result of an injury due to the fault of another.   For more information on his Altoona, PA area firm, please call his office at 814-946-4100 or visit his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com.