The Diversity of Neuropathic Pain

This article presents an update of the current classification, diagnosis, assessment, mechanisms, and treatment of neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain, which is defined as pain associated with a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system, may be caused by a variety of conditions, such as diabetic neuropathy, herpes zoster, surgical trauma, spinal cord injury, and stroke. The diagnostic criteria for neuropathic pain are a history of a nervous system disease or lesion and pain distribution and sensory signs in a neuroanatomically plausible distribution. The treatment of neuropathic pain is often multidisciplinary and involves specific drugs. Recent progress in the diagnosis, assessment, and understanding of its mechanisms offers the perspective of a more rational therapeutic management, which should result in better therapeutic outcome.