Trigeminal Neuralgia Research Paper

The Suicide Disease, otherwise known as Trigeminal Neuralgia, is a neuropathic disorder that does not often emerge until after the age of fifty. Due to the lack of a cure and the random and inescapable searing pains in parts of the face, many patients opt for suicide. Trigeminal Neuralgia is one of the most painful neuropathic disorders known today. It attacks the trigeminal nerve, consisting of the fifth cranial pair: a minor motor root and a major sensory root (Leclercq, 2015, p. 994). The pain that a patient experiences stems from complications within the branches of this specific pair of nerves (Zakrzewska, 2015, p.1).

Neuropathic pain is described as burning, shooting, and tingling. Nociceptive pain originating from visceral sites is described as aching if localized and cramping if poorly localized; from somatic sites, it is described as throbbing/aching.

It's like the worst migraine of your life, and it seems like it will never go away.

Based on the progress report dated 03/11/16, the patient presents with neck pain, causing sharp and pinching pain, rated as 2/10. Patient reports that she has been better since the facet nerve blocks. Symptom is alleviated by injections and medications, and exacerbated by

For the past couple of years, I have witnessed first hand the effects that trigeminal neuralgia does to the human body. My mother was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia in 2010. She was suffering from the pain of the condition for more than two years before she was correctly diagnosed at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. My mother always explained her pain as worse than childbirth, and that is because she has had four children. It caused my mom to have multiple sleepless nights, an aching jaws, constant and excruciating pain, and in one extreme incident, her job locked while she was chewing causing her to choke and had to receive the Heimlich maneuver. Being that she said it was the worst pain in her life, my family knew it was something more than chronic migraines: which is what one of the doctors she saw in the Rio Grande Valley diagnosed her with.

It wasn’t till 1990 that the explanation of this disease came to light. Stimuli are normally not painful, however in people suffering with Fibromyalgia there is overall pain of these stimuli due to pressure over the muscle. Patients tend to have more nociceptive signals due to damage, or the constant use of neurotransmitters. Microglial cells that wrap around the axon of the nerve cells activate the pathogens, which then move from one neuron to the next causing pain when the other neurons are stimulated. As of now there’s no methods of prevention, but there are certain things that may trigger it, such as trauma, family history, infections, and autoimmune

The main symptom of myofascial pain syndrome is a deep, aching pain in a muscle. This pain persists and worsens over time making life more and more difficult. A tender knot in a muscle can also be felt, which is known as the trigger point. Difficulty sleeping is also a common symptom. Someone can experience difficulty falling asleep and sleep disturbances. The pain areas affected most often are muscles, back, mouth and face, or neck. Also common are tenderness, fatigue, muscle spasms, or

Chronic pain is any pain that lasts longer than 3 months (FNLM, 2011). A common type of chronic pain is neuropathic pain which occurs when the nerves themselves are damaged by injury or disease (Veteran Mates, 2013). Neuropathic pain is a complex condition that is often underdiagnosed or undertreated, resulting in negative physical, psychological and social impacts (Veteran Mates, 2013). Therefore early management is critical in order to improve the person’s quality of life and to reduce the chance of the pain becoming persistent (Pain Health, 2015). The following 5 articles relating to the management of neuropathic pain will be annotated, including a summary of the main

Trigeminal neuralgia is one of the most unfortunate and psychologically devastating medical conditions known to men. This chronic pain disorder is characterized by recurrent episodes of lacinating pain in one side of the face - often around the jaw or teeth. Episode can last seconds, minutes or even hours, and repeat several times per day. Patients generally describe the pain as an electric shock, stabbing or burning sensation on the face. Trigeminal neuralgia is one of the most painful conditions documented in medical literature, and victims frequently endure frustatingly long struggles before the disease is correctly diagnosed. The disorder is also colloquially known as the 'suicide disease'. Current drug-based treatments (anticonvulsants, muscle relaxants or antipsychotics) bring some relief to most patients, but at the price of potentially dangerous side effects. A new drug developed by researchers at the University of Zurich promises a better compromise for patients.

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), is a “classical” facial pain syndrome produce secondary to herpes zoster virus “reactivation” that may become chronic and recurrent and is probably one of the most common causes of craniofacial pain. TN is usually characterized by unilateral pain. This pain follows the nerve sensory anatomical distribution (cranial nerve V, radiating to the mandibular or maxillary region in 30% of affected patients) and is commonly accompanied by a brief/transitory facial tic or spasm. TN produces attacks of stabbing unilateral craniofacial pain, most frequent on the right side. The number of episodes and vary from less than one attack per day to twelve or more every hour and up to hundreds every

Migraines often continue despite undergoing neuroplasty of the occipital nerves. In addition, there are procedural-related side effects with this procedure such as numbness and hypersensitivity. Occipital nerve blocks have the potential to yield positive results for both occipital neuralgia and migraine headache, thus creating a diagnostic overlap between pure migraine headache and occipital neuralgia induced headache. Thus, it should also be pointed out that misdiagnosis may result in a false positive result for occipital

Accompanying nausea is an additional common side effect: headaches, arising most often after spinal or epidural anesthetic. A headache from an injection of medication into the subarachnoid space can be credited to a loss in spinal fluid during the procedure (“Anesthesia Complications”). When the anesthetic is injected into the spinal canal, spinal fluid may leak through the penetrated area. The result of the leakage is known as a spinal headache. If the patient is receiving a general or local anesthetic rather than an epidural anesthetic, the headache may be associated with dehydration or anxiety. Since the patient will not be able to breath on his or her own, the oxygen flow to the brain will significantly decrease causing the brain to grow

Although similar in scope, these headaches have symptoms that differentiate themselves from one another. Chronic migraines are the most common type of headache. This type often occurs in people with a history of episodic migraines. The symptoms include a severe, throbbing pain that affects one or both sides of the head. Light sensitivity, feelings of nausea and possibly vomiting are associated with these symptoms.

Headaches are common conditions which are seen in 66% of the global population, therefore causing disturbance to both quality of life (QoL) and psychosocial state (Stovner, L., et al. 2007). Cervical Headache or more commonly known as Cervicogenic headache (CGH) is mainly characterized by unilateral headache symptoms which arise from the cervical spine radiating to the fronto-temporal and possibly to the supraorbital region (Pfaffenrath, V. and Kaube, H. 1990; Nilsson, N. 1995). There is controversial evidence on the strict definition of CGH, with some criteria’s including; unilateral headache, neck pain or neck trauma injury (whiplash), reduced cervical range of motion. Although prevalent

Neuritis is a wide term use to depict different illnesses including the inflammation of a nerve or a group of nerves. It is usually connected with pain, alterations in sensations, weakness, and loss of motion or muscle wasting. During the acute stage of this condition, the patient may not be able to close the eyes due to loss of normal tone and strength by the muscles on the affected side of the face. Thus a temporary paralysis of the face may result from changes in the facial nerves on the affected side. The principle indications of neuritis are tingling, burning, and stabbing pains in the affected nerves. In severe cases, there may be numbness, loss of sensation and paralysis of the nearby muscles. The causes of neuritis include: