Shingles & after-shingles pain

From: www.aftershingles.com


Shingles Treatment Options

If you think you may have shingles, you should talk to your healthcare professional. Receiving medical treatment for shingles as soon as possible can lessen the time you have shingles and lower your risk for postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) or after-shingles pain. Your healthcare professional may prescribe an antiviral medication to treat shingles. Early shingles treatment – ideally within 72 hours of the rash appearing – can decrease both the length and intensity of the shingles outbreak1.

In 2006, a shingles vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is currently recommended by the CDC for adults ages 60 and older in the U.S.2 A vaccine for preventing infection of the varicella zoster virus (VZV infection), which causes chickenpox, has been available in the United States since 19953.

PHN (Post Herptic Neuralagia) Treatment Options

Currently, there is no cure for PHN1, and it cannot be prevented in all patients1. Because the virus is no longer present after the blisters dry up, the antiviral drugs used to treat shingles are not useful in patients with PHN4. For some people, PHN may improve over time without treatment, although not common5. However, there are several treatment options approved by the FDA for PHN and PHN pain.

You can take some of these medications by mouth in the form of a pill. There is also one topical option, a lidocaine patch, that you can apply directly to the skin where you feel the PHN pain6. It is important to realize that every PHN patient responds differently to these different treatment options.

FDA-Approved Treatment Options for PHN
You might prefer a topical treatment (Lidocaine pain patch) or taking a pill (Gabapentin, Pregabalin) or both7. It is important to talk with your healthcare professional about your pain treatment options and together you can create a customized treatment plan that is best for you.

Treatments How it Works (Mode of Action)
Topical
Lidocaine patch 5% Local
Provides pain relief directly at the site of PHN pain8
Oral
Anticonvulsants
Gabapentin
Pregabalin Systemic
Provides PHN pain relief by being taken by mouth and travelling through the body to reach the site of action within the central nervous system910.


Additional treatment options

In addition to oral and topical medications, these other approaches may help you manage your pain. Some options that have been successful in some cases include:

Biofeedback
Relaxation therapy
Spinal cord stimulators
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)11
Capsaicin cream12
Ice or cold compresses13
Acupuncture14
Be sure to discuss all treatment options with your healthcare professional to determine what works best for you.



Approximately one in three people in the U.S. will have shingles during their life – resulting in around 1 million shingles cases in the U.S. every year2.

Is shingles contagious?
Shingles is generally not contagious; however it can be. Shingles occurs only when the virus in a person's body becomes active. Generally, contact with an infected person or your loved one coughing or sneezing will not cause shingles.

Contact with a person with shingles could lead to chicken pox in someone who has never had chicken pox or who has not received the varicella vaccine. It is particularly dangerous when the person exposed to the shingle patient is pregnant.

The main period when your loved one may become contagious is when they develop blisters with clear fluid and the rash covering the blisters has not developed crusts. The virus can spread through the skin of any healthy person (who never had chickenpox in his/her life) that comes into contact with any open wounds/rashes/blisters of the patient suffering from shingles disease2.