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RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. discussed the question a few days ago in the New York Times, whether there are long term risks of antidepressants.

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Prescribing Doctor Videos

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This website, click on link above, is managed by volunteers in England, in particular Linda Elsegood, Trustee. All the videos are no doubt helpful, but I would point out particular interviews:

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Rachel Allen, PhD – England – is a scientist with research background in the innate immune system, glia, cytokines. She discusses Toll-Like Receptors which is where naltrexone acts.

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Jarred Younger, PhD – Stanford researcher  – has published studies using LDN on persons with fibromyalgia.  He discusses plans for testing it on other conditions possibly including depression and using it for children.

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Pradeep Chopra, MD – Anesthesiologist in Rhode Island – uses LDN for CRPS. With Mark Cooper, MD, they have published on it, acknowledging my contribution in teaching him my experience using LDN for years in many persons with intractable pain.

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~~~~~

The material on this site is for informational purposes only.

It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~~~~~

Please understand that it is not legal for me

to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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The patient is a Spanish speaking octogenarian who has Treatment Resistant Bipolar I Disorder with rapid cycling. In manic phases, she becomes aggressive and takes chances. Three of her siblings committed suicide in their late teens and early 20′s. The only time she has not been depressed was for eight months while caring for her dying husband ten years ago, and again, briefly, when she woke from coma 1-1/2 years ago after her most recent of many suicide attempts. She has been profoundly suicidal and lives alone with 24/7 caretakers. Her family lives one block away and keep most of her medications at their home.

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She has bilateral heel pain and longstanding pain of both knees after total knee replacement. She sleeps six hours per night, often waking three times to void, and does not nap. No daytime sleepiness. She was blinded in one eye, and has partial sight in the other due to macular degeneration dry type. She weighs 57 kg.

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Medications: She has failed every known medication. Cymbalta helped knee pain but caused her to become more depressed. Recent lithium toxicity led to the dose being lowered though blood levels were low, and she began using a walker one week ago due to vertigo. Lamotrigine was dropped from 400 to 200 mg/day, and Namenda 5 mg was started for knee pain. Azilect was discontinued eight days ago.

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On examination, she had a very flat affect. She was very attentive and responded appropriately to questions translated for her. Her daughter and son-in-law demonstrated very tender care.

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Treatment

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The patient was given a small dose of oxytocin, a hormone made in the brain. Within one hour, she mentioned wanting Italian food — a clear sign to family that her depression was beginning to respond. Ketamine nasal spray was then discussed and a total of 10 mg was tested with no change in blood pressure or heart rate. Walking the long corridor to the elevator, she commented that pain was much better. The family indicates that if her depression responds to this, it will be the first time in more than fifty years.

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The next day, family reported that instead of sleeping her usual six hours, she slept well, from 10:30 pm to 9:00 am. Symptoms began at 9:15 am. At 11:10 am, she was anxious, depressed, with suicidal ideation and knee pain was 6 on a scale of 10.

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At 11:55 am, oxytocin was given and at 12:07 pm, 20 mg ketamine was given intra-nasally. By 12:15 am, depression, anxiety, suicidality and pain were zero. There was no change in blood pressure or pulse. Relief lasted almost five hours.

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 At 4:30 pm, the caretaker reported she was crying profoundly for 10 minutes. At 5:00 pm, anxiety was rated 8, depression 10, suicidal ideation 10, pain 0. Ketamine 20 mg was given at 5:50 pm, and by 6:05 she reported no anxiety, depression or suicidality and no pain.

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She returns tomorrow for her second visit. As we go forward, we will see duration of effect. She begins low dose naltrexone today after I advised her to stop tramadol a few days ago. She had been taking tramadol, a partial opioid, for pain of both knees and heels.

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In my experience prescribing ketamine for more than eleven years, it is one of the safest medications I have ever prescribed.

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My focus is on neuroinflammation and glia in the setting of chronic pain. There is tremendous overlap in pain systems and depression with strong evidence for the role of inflammation in both conditions. Ketamine is reported to be profoundly anti-inflammatory and acts more on glial receptors than its well known effect on the NMDA receptor.

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That led me to prescribe another anti-inflammatory glial modulator for depression, low dose naltrexone (LDN). LDN antagonizes the Toll-Like Receptor 4 , the glial receptor that is a major component of the innate immune system in the brain and spinal cord. LDN has helped many of my patients who had intractable pain and a case report will be added soon that details the rapid response to LDN for a person with severe suicidality.

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A review of inflammation and glia in depression was published by Yale psychiatrists in 2008 and discusses this in much greater detail.

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Patients with Treatment Resistant Bipolar Disorder have reported that ketamine and oxytocin each help depression, but the combination works far better than would be predicted. It is hoped that persons with depression will benefit as much from addition of LDN that has helped so many with intractable pain who need ketamine much less because it is so effective. Of course these are preliminary observations after only several months, but they have been deeply rewarding. Much more work needs to be done, but in my opinion, these are a few of the key medications that have brought the greatest benefit to persons who have either pain or depression.

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Third Visit

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At her third visit last week, I sent the patient back long distance under the care of her psychiatrist with instructions to continue ketamine nasal spray and oxytocin. She apologized that she had not told the truth about her response to the medications. She had reported 100% improvement because she wanted to make her family feel better. Overall, she downgraded the rating of her depression as moderately better, and felt she was not 100%, because she still did not want to be alive. I pointed out that does not mean she is depressed, simply that she does not wish to be alive, an entirely different matter. As she spoke, she was smiling throughout the meeting.

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Her family reported that she had been swimming, had walked one block to their home over the weekend, and today they tell me she has been swimming again, and plans to swim tomorrow.

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To be continued.

The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for

medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

.

~

Please understand that it is not legal for me

to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office.

~

~

For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

PeaPure is a glial modulator. It is available in Italy and the Netherlands as a food supplement and has been studied in multicenter clinical trials in Europe for several years. It is well tolerated with no side effects and is very helpful for neuropathic pain, headache, and osteoarthritis. It is anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective.

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Because it inhibits astrocyte activation and the over-expression of pro-inflammatory molecules and signals, it is being investigated in Alzheimer’s Disease.

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The mechanism of action of PEA was discovered in 1993 by Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini in her work on nerve growth factors. She found it is involved in metabolism of mast cells and published a series of papers on its self-healing effect of the body in response to inflammation and pain. Two recent publications from Jan M Keppel Hesselink, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at the Institute for Neuropathic Pain, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, describe case reports, one of which is the case of a woman with CRPS.

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The purpose of this post is to clarify dosing of PeaPure and how to take it for a sudden flare of pain. My apologies for failing to recall the source of these instructions which I believe was from the manufacturer and from here and here. The latter includes an excellent review of its mechanism.

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Description of PeaPure® 400 mg capsules
PeaPure® is a food supplement based on a natural and fatty-acid like compound.
The substance palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a physiologically active molecule that the body produces naturally.
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What the user should know prior to ingestion:
•    There are no known significant side effects.
•    PeaPure® can be taken simultaneously with other medicine. In case of doubt, it is recommended to first consult your doctor or a pharmacist.
•    Use during pregnancy is NOT recommended.
•    PeaPure® does not contain sugar, yeast, allergens, sorbitol, magnesium stearate, povidone or other ingredients.

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Dosage and administration
Administration: During or after the meal, swallow 1 capsule together with water, or sprinkle the content of the capsule on your food.

Dosage:  may use 30 mg/kg
First 2 months: 3 times 1 capsule daily
Next 2 months: In case of a positive result, 2 times 1 capsule daily
After 4 months, you can consider the following:
•    Continue taking 2 times 1 capsule daily.
•    Reduce the ingestion to 1 times 1 capsule daily.
•    Stop the ingestion.

In case of regression, it is recommended to increase the dosage to 2 or 3 times 1 capsule daily.
It is possible to continue taking PeaPure® in the correct dosage.
Do not exceed the recommended daily dosage.

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PeaPure can be easily swallowed, or for patients with severe swallowing problems, the capsules can be openend and PEA can be sprinkeled over a meal or mixed with yoghurt or so.

PeaPure can also be taken easily under the tongue, by opening the special designed capsule and poring the powder on a spoon and getting it under the tongue. (Especially of use in patients suffering great pain and for instance in Lou Gehring’s disease). Or the capsule can easily be swallowed.

Dose recommendations of PeaPure

Dose recommendation: start with 1200 mg daily in 2 to 3 doses (e.g. 2 capsules after breakfast and 1 capsule after diner). In case of severe pain, migraine or for special indications such as Lou Gehrings disease it is recommended to open the capsule and put the PEA under the tongue for longer periodes of time. The PEA dissolves in the mouth and is absorbed via the oral mucosa to enter directly into the body, not being partly digested in the gut. This gives a jumpstart which might be desirable, but is not always necessary.

PEA is the body’s own modulator, and not a painkiller such as NSAIDs and morphine. It does mostly need some weeks to slowly bring the body in balance on a number of biological levels. As PEA has a number of modulating effects, both on the short term as well as slowly increasing, there are patients experiencing quick pain relief within some days. There are also patients who need more time (especially in chronic pain situations). Therefore the recommendation is to test the efficacy of PEA during two months in cases of chronic pain before deciding on its efficacy.

If pain decreases more than 30% one can reduce the dose of PeaPure to 2 times 400 mg. If pain increases under PeaPure treatment, as some chronic pain syndromes sometimes waxes and wanes (given the weather, given excercise, food, etc) it is recommended to increase the dose to 800 mg twice daily.

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Warnings
•    It is not allowed to use food supplements as replacement for a varied diet.
•    Keep this food supplement dry and at room temperature. Keep out of reach of small children.

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Content and ingredients
30 vegetarian capsules
Each capsule contains 400 mg palmitoylethanolamide (PEA).
Ingredients: palmitoylethanolamide, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (capsule)

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NPR reported yesterday on the beneficial effects of ketamine for depression, this time reporting on a ketamine inhaler prescribed by Demitri Papolos, MD.

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Dr. Papolos is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director of Research of the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation.

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He “is one of a handful of psychiatrists in the world who began to see and to speak out about the possible deleterious effects of antidepressants and stimulants in the population of children within the bipolar spectrum.”

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This NPR report described a syndrome Dr. Papolos has identified of Bipolar children & adolescents consumed by fear. They described a boy who had extreme attacks of rage for decades, and horrific violent nightmares.

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The boy had attempted suicide at age 5. He was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit at age 12 and strapped down in a padded room, terrified. He failed many medications for years, some made him worse, and he was literally never able to complete a meal at table with the family without flying off in a rage or someone leaving.

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in 2010, the boy tried Dr. “Papolos’ ketamine treatment. He says he’ll remember the day for the rest of his life. ‘I think we did two puffs, and I remember I sat up and I just started laughing,’ he says. Then his mother picks up the story: ‘You said you had an internal feeling of calm that you had never had before in your life. And when we came home that night, that was the first night that we ever all had dinner at the table without somebody leaving.’”

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This boy, George McCann, now at age 22 is finally able to begin a more normal life. He needs the medication only every third day. “Papolos has treated about 60 young people with ketamine so far and says all but two have had dramatic responses.”

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“The number of patients treated so far is small, and the approach is so new it hasn’t been tested by other researchers yet. Papolos says he’s hoping a study he published late last year will help persuade other researchers to try the drug on other children.”

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“In the meantime, George McCann continues to inhale a prescribed dose of ketamine every third day. The fear and anger that once dominated his life are gone, he says, adding that his mind is free now to work….”

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The relief with ketamine from the prison of mood disorders is deeply important. Severe mood disorders such as Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder can destroy the lives of patients and their loved ones. At worst, they can be lethal.

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A review of published cases of intravenous ketamine for depression asks : “Ketamine for depression: where do we go from here?“

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I think the answer is we need to simplify the method of treatment using inhaled ketamine and begin to give their lives back to the patients we see. It is one of the safest medications I have ever prescribed. It does not cause weight gain or loss. It does not cause sexual dysfunction. And although it may increase sedation when used in combination with other sedating medications, at the low doses needed to treat mood disorders, I do not see ketamine interfere with other medication.

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Ketamine can relieve depression from one second to the next. And this young man needs the medication every third day. Is that too much to ask to gain a life?

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10 Responses to “RSD – CRPS – Complex Regional Pain Syndrome – Long Distance Patients”

1. Robyn H Says:
   08/04/2010 at 8:16 am  
   I broke my hip and wrist during a fall at a local skating rink in my hometown in Georgia. The hip healed fine after surgery and two weeks later, surgery was performed on my right wrist. Immediately after surgery, the pain was different. I was soon diagnosed with RSD and put on several medications and therapy three times a week. After many weeks of oxycontin, oxycodone, neurotin, topamax, klonopin, robaxin and paxil and four nerve blocks (SGB), it was suggested I receive the spinal cord stimulator. Through research on the internet, I found Jim Broatch with the RSDSA organizaton who advised me there were other alternatives in treating RSD. I discovered Dr. Nancy Sajben in San Diego. She has been treating RSD with oral ketamine and naltrexone. I saw Dr. Sajben in her office July 19th and began treatment. Since beginning treatment, I have been able to go off the opiods and have had a 70% improvement in my range of movement of fingers and arm and decreased pain levels to the extent that I can now tolerate physical therapy. I have had no “flare ups” since beginning treatment. Dr. Sajben has changed my life for the better and given me hope for the future. Thank you, Dr. Sajben!

    
   • Nancy Sajben MD Says:
     08/04/2010 at 6:00 pm   Remarkably, in one and one-half days, she no longer needed high dose oxycodone which she decreased 95% on her own as pain was 40% better. That was before ketamine reached a dose where it began to have an effect and before naltrexone was prescribed. The later addition of those two helped even more. By the start of week two, she was able to discontinue the last 5% of oxycodone and is 70% better off opioids. She was started on a few other medications than mentioned in her comments: rational polypharmacy. Since January, she was unable to move her fingers, unable to write or pick up anything with the right hand. Less than ten days after we started treatment, the fingers had regained modest motion. She could hold a pen, write, pick things up with the fingers, fold laundry, pack luggage, and best of all her seven year old daughter said: “Mommy, I can hold your hand for real now.” Allodynia and hypersensitivity of the hand is so much better that she is likely to be able now to make progress in physical and occupational therapy. It was too painful prior to her visit. There has not been one flare of CRPS since day one on July 19, 2010, despite using the hand in ways not possible for seven months.

      
2. Lori Morris Says:
   01/11/2011 at 6:45 pm   I would first like to thank you for your specialization in CRPS. My husband was diagnosed with CRPS in March 2010. He suffers in his lower left extremity (left foot/ankle) with all the signs of CRPS. He has gone through extensive pain management since that time. He has used oral meds, morphine, oxycontin, and now methadone, and also takes lyrica and nortriptylene along with lortab as needed. He has had no relief with these meds. He has had one nerve block with no relief, so a second block was not attempted. On Friday Jan. 7th the SCS trial was done and today Jan. 10th removed due to it causing pain in his lower back and side. The jolting the SCS caused in these areas could not be over come with reprogramming the SCS. Today, his pain management doctor discussed the Drug Delivery Therapy, which is not crazy about doing and after reading your information regarding SCS and Pumps I too am having second thoughts. However, the doctor did mention that there were 2 clinics that specialized in CRPS. One at John Hopkins and the other at UCLA. His doctor recommends the UCLA clinic and that is how I got to your page. I have been doing my research on CRPS since my husband was first diagnosed and am always looking for anything new in the medical field. I have read all your information regarding the Ketamine and Naltroxene treatments your patients have received and will be discussing these with his local pain management doctor. So, again I just want to thank you in advance for your specialization and your web page. Who knows, we just may meet some day.

    
   • Nancy Sajben MD Says:
     01/15/2011 at 6:17 pm   CRPS is unlike any other pain syndrome because it can be spontaneous or triggered by something very slight. Pain can involve the entire body. There is a high incidence of suicide. Despite that, there is a hope that it may be entirely reversible or, at least, put into remission. What a joy to see that happen and to share in the recovery!!!

      
3. Traci Says:
   03/29/2011 at 6:01 am I posted on your main blog, but haven’t heard back. I know you wanted information regarding issues or problems with Spinal Cord Stimulators, so here is some information that you can add to your file. I can also be contacted for additional information because this issue continue to date.

   In one of your posts you asked for input from patients that currently have a SCS. I currently have a Medtronic SCS it was implanted early 2010 and I ended up having swelling in my Lt (affected) foot/ankle every time I would charge the “re-chargeable battery”. No one at Medtronic could figure out the issue. I turned into their “human lab rat”. After several months of this I was told to switch from a rechargeable battery to a non-rechargeable batter. Thus another operation… which I did. After this surgery (I have a paddle with 16 electrodes) all 8 electrodes on the Lt side that used to supply stimulation to my Lt foot/ankle now hit my pelvic area – thus I can no longer utilize these electrodes. And out of the 8 electrodes on the Rt 2 are providing stimulation to my Lt foot and the other 6 are hitting the wrong areas. In addition to this I have had continual instances where I am getting a very sharp pain/ sharp twinge (like a jolt) around where the electrodes area. When this happens if I turn off the SCS the pain immediately stops. I’ve been on a conference call with a Senior Engineer of Medtronic and a local Rep in person with me to do reprogramming… The Engineer only wanted to know if the electrodes were putting out stimulation. He didn’t want to know what the amperage was at before I could feel it or in what part of the body the stimulation was felt. These should have been critical pieces of information. All he wanted to state was that the electrodes were working. As for the Sharp Pain / Sharp Twinges that continue to occur in the electrode area their Senior Engineer has no idea what is causing this. He asked me to run an experiment the next time it happened – I did exactly what he wanted and reported back the findings. I have yet to hear back from Medtronic. They do not want to back up their product and they are not willing to admit that their is a problem. Although I have 2 doctors including a Neurosurgeon that feel there is some type of fault in their product or that it is faulty. Hopefully this gives you some additional information you were seeking. Please feel free to email me if you would like to discuss further. I am continuing my uphill battle with Medtronic.

   I have spoke with Medtronic as recently as yesterday and they can not explain the continual sharp pain/sharp twinge that I continue to get where the paddle that holds the electrodes is placed. The “Patient Relations Rep” that has been assigned to me, (at one point she tried to tell me she was from their “Legal Department” and she was later introduced by a team member as a “Patient Relations Representative”), doesn’t feel this is a big issue. She told me yesterday that this is “just medicine” and sometime they can get it right and other times it just doesn’t work out… The Senior Engineer at their company can not figure out what the problem is, so he just wants to reset the “INS”. I asked exactly what the “INS” was and the Patient Relations Rep couldn’t answer that question. I have already had my system reset numerous times (too many to count) and reprogrammed numerous times.

   The trial was aproximately $25,000; the hospital expenses alone and cost for the SCS implant were over $150,000 and the secondary surgery to replace the rechargeable battery with a non-rechargeable battery was aproximately $53,000. This is all for a system the now has 2 out of 16 electrodes that hit the correct area, creates an intermitent sharp pain/sharp twinge in the spinal area where the electrodes/paddle is placed, and they aren’t sure how to resolve this issue. But I was told yesterday that their system was working properly by their rep.

    
   • Nancy Sajben MD Says:
     04/01/2011 at 2:48 am  Traci, thank you for your comments and for placing your second comment in this section where others with CRPS may be more likely to see it.

     One of the simplest ways to respond to the issues you pose is to say that a renowned pain specialist colleague, trained in Anesthesia Pain at Harvard 40 years ago, does not put in spinal cord stimulators, does not recommend them and does not refer patients for them. He trained in how to use them when they came out, just as he trained for morphine pumps. He has never placed either in a patient.

     The common sense question is: Show us the data. Five year long term data with complications. Invasive procedures do have potential risks.

     The body tissue of a person with CRPS is very volatile, very different than any other condition I know. Any surgery, any procedure in that person is a risk not to be taken lightly. Just a needle stick for blood draw or vaccine can trigger CRPS.

     There is no question it is a big money maker. Several can be placed in many patients in a few hours. In no time at all, it has become an industry. And that kind of wealth can control the way pain management is practiced in this country. It doesn’t pay to do anything else. NIH doesn’t try. Show us the research.

     Nothing interests me more than the neuropharmacology approach I use for CRPS and “intractable” pain from the many conditions my patients have. I wish you lived nearby.

     Reply
4. Maureen Says:
   01/22/2012 at 5:57 am   
   I just had the scs implanted two weeks ago. I am getting that sharp pain and burning near the battery site. It happens with the scs on or off. I really am wishing I never got it. I feel that the small relief that I am getting is not worth it. Are you telling me that the leads can never come out and no MRI ever? I do believe they can be removed.

    
   • Nancy Sajben MD Says:
     01/24/2012 at 4:41 pm   
     I believe they can be removed, but they may become tethered to the spinal cord itself. I presume that may occur when they have been in for some time. I do not implant these, but one of the foremost anesthesiology pain specialist in the country, Harvard trained in pain management, will not put these in and will not refer patients for them.

     Reply
   • Nancy Sajben MD Says:
     01/24/2012 at 4:43 pm   editAgain, specifically, if tethered to the spinal cord, or some other complication, they cannot be removed.

      
5. Barb Fosdick Says:
   06/07/2012 at 11:25 pm   editI have been a surgerical nurse for 40 years and have seen many patients receive SCS…and many, many fail, or return to surgery for fractured electrode wires, misplaced wires, or infected battery pockets, besides complicated problems, or “lack of positive results, or battery revisions, or electrode repositionings.” Some patients have even developed spinal fluid leaks when the spinal dura layer has been torn during implanting the electrode wires, and they develop severe headaches, and have to return to surgery for the leak to be repaired. Many pain management doctors are convincing patients that this is a great way to treat their pain, and they find out in 2-6 months that they wish they never had agreed to it. Sure, there are some patients that get some relief, but this procedure has been pushed on the population of chronic pain patients, when they are at their worse condition, and willing to try anything….at any expense, and the companies and implanting doctors are getting the money. More patients need to learn the truth about these devices! Anomymous…. and never allowed them to put one of those things in me…but many tried!

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Though morphine and other opiates are the gold standard for producing analgesia, paradoxically they may create pain.

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The mechanism, a microglia-to-neuron pathway in the spinal cord, has now been discovered by Ferrini et al. It was published in the on-line edition of Nature Neuroscience: 

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“Morphine hyperalgesia gated through microglia-mediated

disruption of neuronal Cl⁻ homeostasis.”

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Their research was reviewed January 8 in Medical News Today, exerpted below:

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….”Our research identifies a molecular pathway by which morphine can increase pain, and suggests potential new ways to make morphine effective for more patients,” says senior author Dr. Yves De Koninck, Professor at Université Laval in Quebec City. The team included researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec, the US and Italy.

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New pathway in pain management

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The research not only identifies a target pathway to suppress morphine-induced pain but teases apart the pain hypersensitivity caused by morphine from tolerance to morphine, two phenomena previously considered to be caused by the same mechanisms.

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“When morphine doesn’t reduce pain adequately the tendency is to increase the dosage. If a higher dosage produces pain relief, this is the classic picture of morphine tolerance, which is very well known. But sometimes increasing the morphine can, paradoxically, makes the pain worse,” explains co-author Dr. Michael Salter. Dr. Salter is Senior Scientist and Head of Neurosciences & Mental Health at SickKids, Professor of Physiology at University of Toronto, and Canada Research Chair in Neuroplasticity and Pain.

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“Pain experts have thought tolerance and hypersensitivity (or hyperalgesia) are simply different reflections of the same response,” says Dr. De Koninck, “but we discovered that cellular and signalling processes for morphine tolerance are very different from those of morphine-induced pain.”

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Dr. Salter adds, “We identified specialized cells – known as microglia – in the spinal cord as the culprit behind morphine-induced pain hypersensitivity. When morphine acts on certain receptors in microglia, it triggers the cascade of events that ultimately increase, rather than decrease, activity of the pain-transmitting nerve cells.”

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The researchers also identified the molecule responsible for this side effect of morphine. “It’s a protein called KCC2, which regulates the transport of chloride ions and the proper control of sensory signals to the brain,” explains Dr. De Koninck. “Morphine inhibits the activity of this protein, causing abnormal pain perception. By restoring normal KCC2 activity we could potentially prevent pain hypersensitivity.” Dr. De Koninck and researchers at Université Laval are testing new molecules capable of preserving KCC2 functions and thus preventing hyperalgesia.

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The KCC2 pathway appears to apply to short-term as well as to long-term morphine administration, says Dr. De Koninck. “Thus, we have the foundation for new strategies to improve the treatment of post-operative as well as chronic pain.”

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Dr. Salter adds, “Our discovery could have a major impact on individuals with various types of intractable pain, such as that associated with cancer or nerve damage, who have stopped morphine or other opiate medications because of pain hypersensitivity.”

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Cost of pain

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Pain has been labelled the silent health crisis, afflicting tens of millions of people worldwide. Pain has a profound negative effect on the quality of human life. Pain affects nearly all aspects of human existence, with untreated or under-treated pain being the most common cause of disability. The Canadian Pain Society estimates that chronic pain affects at least one in five Canadians and costs Canada $55-60 billion per year, including health care expenses and lost productivity.

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“People with incapacitating pain may be left with no alternatives when our most powerful medications intensify their suffering,” says Dr. De Koninck, who is also Director of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience at Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec.

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Dr. Salter adds, “Pain interferes with many aspects of an individual’s life. Too often, patients with chronic pain feel abandoned and stigmatized. Among the many burdens on individuals and their families, chronic pain is linked to increased risk of suicide. The burden of chronic pain affects children and teens as well as adults.” These risks affect individuals with many types of pain, ranging from migraine and carpel-tunnel syndrome to cancer, AIDS, diabetes, traumatic injuries, Parkinson’s disease and dozens of other conditions.”

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It is rare for me to see a patient who is not complex.

They have failed so many treatments for so many years before they call.

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This is the report of a lovely woman in her early 70′s with progressive Multiple Sclerosis for 30 years and paraplegia that has forced her to use an electric scooter the last 5 years, and power wheelchair the last 2o years. Because of total paralysis of the right lower limb, she fell and shattered her femur, the thigh bone, in August 2009. Tragically, and all too often, the surgeon failed to diagnose Complex Regional Pain Syndrome [CRPS], even failed to visit her in the hospital. CRPS increased the fatigue she had already had from Multiple Sclerosis.

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Thankfully a physical therapist suggested the diagnosis.

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Why is pain management not a required subject for physicians?

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I have written elsewhere that the American Pain Society discovered that our National Institute of Health, NIH, devotes less than half of 1% of their research dollar to pain research. Of 28 NIH institutes, none for pain, three for addiction. This will not change soon. The only hope is that RSDSA.org will succeed in collaborating with all pain organizations, groups with dystonia, chronic fatigue in order to give a voice and research dollar to advances.

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Before seeing me in September, she had 11 sympathetic blocks with no benefit.

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Does it make you wonder why 11 were done?

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How does insurance authorize 11 when 10 had no benefit? I have just learned that a doctor must indicate at least 50% relief before another will be authorized. That explains it.

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Then she was given opioids including tramadal and Butrans patch which rendered her a “zombie,” sedated, poor memory, unable to function. She tried 4 or 5 treatments of Calmare with no benefit but was advised she needed a clear neural pathway for it to work. That was not possible due to the Multiple Sclerosis.
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Lyrica caused severe edema. Gabapentin 1400 mg/day caused weight gain, increased her appetite  more than usual, but she remained on it. She craves sweets more than usual, at times uncontrollably. Perhaps it can be slowly tapered now. Advil 600 mg gave some benefit but caused ulcers that required Nexium.

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Since her initial visit a few weeks ago, she became 60% better during her two week stay.

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I will highlight only two of the new medications started.

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It may also be said that opioids are not the answer.

Opioids may perpetuate pain.
They may produce paradoxical pain or opioid induced hyperalgesia or windup.

They may block the effect of ketamine and other adjuvants that would otherwise lower pain.

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Of importance is that she was not able to tolerate clothing on her right lower limb for three years, not even a sheet, and now she is able to sleep through the night without pain for the first time in three years and able to wear a skirt. This allows her to go out with family to restaurants and even to enjoy shopping with her daughter. Her dose of ketamine is very small relative to most of my patients and she uses it only once or twice a day since most of the new medications have brought her pain down.

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At her first visit one month ago, she rated pain from 6 to 8 on a scale of 10, average 7/10. Now 60% better, ranging from zero to 7, average 4. Yes zero pain, sleeping through the night without pain and waking without pain. She had not been able to tolerate touch to the right thigh or foot and would pull her skirt above the thigh, removing her shoe.

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Now she indicates pain continues to improve.

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Of interest, despite an abundance of concern that low dose naltrexone [LDN] may flare her Multiple Sclerosis, we were easily able to increase the dose to triple what is usually called “LDN.” This did not flare her condition and may be one of the most effective medications she is taking for pain.

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What is LDN?

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The FDA has sanctioned its use in the USA only in doses of 50 to 400 mg for addiction to opioids and alcohol.

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Low dose naltrexone [LDN] is a fascinating medication. It has been used in low dose in persons with Multiple Sclerosis since 1985 when a Harvard trained neurologist in New York City, Dr. Bihari, first discovered that it relieved all disability in some patients with Multiple Sclerosis and prevented recurrent attacks. Since then, doctors in Scotland, where they have the highest incidence of Multiple Sclerosis, find that one of the earliest signs of recovery in this population is relief of neurogenic bladder. It is said that persons with Multiple Sclerosis must remain on LDN for 1.5 years before they might fully assess its value.

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 Multiple Sclerosis may be flared unless very small doses of LDN are used.

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Many with Mulitple Sclerosis cannot tolerate more than 2 or 3 mg, perhaps due to spasticity. There is a great deal of dogma on the web about its mechanism, dosing and timing for off label use. Use the search function on this site to review the prior discussions I posted on LDN, MS, CRPS.

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Naltrexone is a glial modulator.

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What’s that?!

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By serendipity, four years ago I discovered naltrexone in low dose may relieve chronic intractable pain. I had been using it for perhaps eight years in microgram doses but I found in milligram doses it is even more profound.

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The mechanism of naltrexone and a wee bit of glial research is discussed here. The Nobel Prize was awarded last year for the discovery that these glia are your innate immune system. They are profoundly important in many diseases including chronic pain, Major Depression, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimers, Parkinsons Disease, ALS, Autism. They produce inflammatory cytokines that lead to inflammation.

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Now that she has been home for two weeks, on a number of medications that I started, not just the ketamine and LDN, I hope she will comment on her experience and her progress since flying back to the east coast after her brief visit here.

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It is often essential to taper off opioids to allow other medication to work.

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I feel she was able to benefit from these low doses of medication because she tapered off all opioid medication prior to her visit, thus allowing her system to recover and respond to these medications. We will know more in the next few months as she slowly titrates up on some of the medications that were started.

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Next year on her return, we may be able to withdraw some of the medications depending on how well she is doing.

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Finally, ketamine does cause her to have brief side effects. Her husband likens the effect the same as half a glass of wine: “She’s really cute.” Thankfully, most people have no side effects and if they do, they rarely last more than 20 minutes.

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She sends an update below, 80 to 90% better. Hopefully this will continue to improve over the next months as she slowly increases the medication we started. And ketamine has an additive effect in some. It is anti-inflammatory.

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.

It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

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Please understand that it is not legal for me to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office or contact your local psychiatrist.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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This research is one of the most dramatic findings in the field of depression and mood disorders. It was published in Science by researchers from Yale and the National Institute of Mental Health, discussed by PBS here.

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The speed with which ketamine can relieve major depression is deeply moving to witness. In my experience prescribing nasal ketamine it works almost 100% of the time. I have discussed ketamine and previous publications on it for Major Depression and PTSD. It is also effective for suicidal and bipolar depression patients.

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Ronald S. Duman, PhD, the lead scientist, reviews his group’s research in this 2011 video:

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Stress and depression leads to structural changes in the brain and these structural changes are reversible.

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Depression affects 17% of the population, almost one in five of the population. Only one third of patients are effectively treated by existing antidepressants, even after many weeks. Nerve growth factors, in particular BDNF, are decreased by stress, with a very significant loss in depressed patients. BDNF produces antidepressant behavior in rodent models of depression.

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BDNF is important for influencing the survival and function of neurons.

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There are certain neurogenic zones in the brain that produce new neurons. Stress decreases the number of new neurons. Chronic antidepressant use increases the numbers and proliferation of these new neurons. Antidepressant treatment increases neurogenesis and this is dependent upon BDNF, this neurotrophic factor.

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[His slide shows] Exercise, Prozac, ECT, antipsychotics, antidepressants increase neurogenesis.

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Not only are there more synapses made by ketamine, but they are a larger size which is indicative of ones that are more functionally connected. Antidepressants take many weeks. A single dose of ketamine rapidly reverses depressive behaviors and loss of connections and completely reverses the decrements that had occurred over several weeks.

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In suicidal patients given ketamine at Yale in the Emergency Room, within a matter of hours, the suicidality is completely reversed. These people are better for weeks after a single dose of ketamine treatment. [emphasis mine]

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Therapeutically ketamine is even more rapidly acting than ECT.

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Ketamine increases BDNF. But research shows its effects are blocked in mice that are deficient in BDNF. Riluzole also influences BDNF, but the side effect profile is so serious that I would not consider prescribing it without more data on safety.

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Safety concerns are often raised in publications regarding chronic ketamine use. Most of my patients have no side effects at all. It is one of the safest medications we have and only a small percentage experience transient side effects. The favorable side effect profile, simplicity and low cost is key. The results for nasal ketamine are not 100%, neither is IV ketamine, but I have patients who respond to nasal spray when they failed IV ketamine. More importantly, they can carry it in their pocket and use as needed.

My experience prescribing ketamine goes back almost to the year 2000 for persons with chronic pain who have used ketamine several times daily, and since Spring 2012 for Major Depression. Its effect for depression lasts longer than for chronic intractable pain where it is short lasting. In the past, I prescribed it orally, by mouth, but since late 2011 I have prescribed it in a nasal spray and that form works for depression.

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The neuroprotective action of ketamine has been published since at least 1988.

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Patients can use nasal ketamine as needed. Schedules vary, everyone is different. It is short acting, but it does not stop working.

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However, the use of other adjuvants, such as glial modulators, in treatment of depression is essential to understand, and is now work in progress. The role of inflammation and glia in the pathogenesis of depression has been well established since 2000, and discussed here.

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Does ketamine also restore brain connections in patients with chronic pain? Chronic pain and major depression both lead to brain atrophy and memory loss. Both cause the same imbalance in glial cytokines. Both may respond to glial modulators, e.g. low dose naltrexone among others that have worked in some patients.

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“The original link between ketamine and relief of depression was made at the Connecticut Mental Health Center in New Haven by John Krystal, chair of the department of psychiatry at Yale, and Dennis Charney, now dean of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, who helped launch clinical trials of ketamine while at the National Institute of Mental Health,” reported by Yale  here.

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I hope to add new approaches to treatment of anxiety that has failed to respond to other interventions.

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute

 for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~

Please understand that it is not legal for me to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office or contact your local psychiatrist.

~

For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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Patients ask me to compare IV ketamine to other routes of administration such as intranasal or sublingual. No one has done comparisons. Even if they had, every person is different and may have several pain syndromes.

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I have outlined one case below. One disadvantage of IV ketamine is the cost and the need to schedule for an IV treatment with your physician often weeks in advance. For some, this may mean setting aside two weeks to travel and make other arrangements. The alternative is carrying this low cost medication in your pocket and using as needed to relieve pain when you have pain, or to prevent pain when you know your activity will flare it.

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Ketamine is an important medication for pain.  It is considered a third line choice for pain relief, but it is almost a first line choice for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, CRPS  – the old term is RSD. And I prescribe it for other conditions that have been refractory to treatment. But, far more than any other pain syndrome, pain from CRPS can be flared by emotional stress or minor injury and it can spread to other areas.

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Ketamine is a short acting medication. It is both analgesic and anti-inflammatory.

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Opioids create pain; ketamine not only relieves pain, it also relieves inflammation. In fact, opioids may prevent ketamine from helping at all.

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A small number of pain specialists in the USA, most at university centers, provide IV ketamine for CRPS. Not all people respond. A lucky few may get months of pain relief, but may require monthly boosters, i.e. it may be a short acting medication only during the infusion or it may offer relief for weeks or months but not years. I do not believe anyone has published comparisons showing duration of effect.

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I view ketamine as a short acting medication that requires other combination medications to “clamp” the relief and prevent pain from recurring.

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Here is a case report posted a few years ago of my patient who had 8 months of relief from IV ketamine. It was given 24 hours/day for 5 days in May 2007, followed by four hour IV boosters two days every month. Unfortunately all ketamine stopped having any effect after 8 months. I then added multiple medications that were selected because of specific mechanisms — no opioids, no ketamine — and she has been pain free since December 2009 on a single drug.

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CASE REPORT

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Today was the 5th visit in the last two weeks with an out of state patient who has had CRPS since 1999. She also has sciatic neuropathy, chronic lumbar pain after 360 degree spinal fusion, shoulder pain, and two types of headache. Medications are now significantly helping all pain syndromes.

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Before seeing me, she had had a total of 9 infusions of IV ketamine most of them given at doses of 300mg/hr — a very high dose. She had no side effects from ketamine. One of those infusions was given for 6 days over 4 hours each day. She had failed a lidocaine infusion at high dose. A spinal cord stimulator was reprogrammed 10 times, but only made pain worse.

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I then started her on a combination of medications. With addition of the first new medication, she had 50% improvement in the first 24 to 36 hours, that lasted beyond the relief from nasal ketamine that was also started. Unfortunately, on day 8, she and another family member, came down with a virus that causes headache and severe vertigo. Nevertheless, all pain is markedly better.

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With ketamine she is able to reduce pain down to 1 on a scale of 10 for a few hours. Best of all she can carry it with her and use it as needed. She no longer needs to take two weeks out of her life to schedule IV ketamine infusions.

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It will take almost 3 months to slowly increase the other medications we started. Hopefully this combination will “clamp” the pain and prevent it from increasing so that she may become pain free without needing ketamine.

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After that, if she is able to become pain free, the plan is that we will then be able to slowly remove most of the new medications we started this week and still maintain relief of pain. I will see her again in the future.

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Sierra wildflowers

Click to embiggen

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~~~~~

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,

and is not a substitute for medical advice,

diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

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Please understand that it is not legal for me to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office.

.

~

For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

~

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Current antidepressant therapies are only modestly effective, may have significant side effects and do not provide universal efficacy.

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The role of inflammation and immune systems in the pathogenesis of depression has become well-established since 2000. Immune system activity is mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines that change behavior.

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This 2012 review is the first to summarize genetic variants of the inflammatory system involved in immune activation and Major Depressive Disorder, Major Recurrent Depression, Dysthymia, Childhood Onset Major Depression and Geriatric Depression: The role of immune genes in the association between depression and inflammation: A review of recent clinical studies. They reviewed 52 papers of which 27 are case-controlled studies. 

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Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines are produced by glial cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Glial cells make up 90% of the cells in the CNS; 10% are nerve cells, neurons. When glia are activated, they produce cytokines that lead to inflammation. Glia and inflammatory cytokines play a role in infection, stroke, trauma, chronic pain, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, ALS and Major Depression. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2011 for discoveries of the innate immune system, in particular the mammalian Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) which is the receptor for naltrexone. That discovery incidentally was made by Bruce Beutler at Scripps Research Institute.

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You can read more about glia and the inflammatory response posted January 2011: Pain and the Immune System – It’s Not Just About Neurons – Naltrexone. This is not specific to pain but also relates to some with major depression.

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Ketamine is a major anti-inflammatory and glial modulator. Naltrexone is a glial modulator that I have prescribed for chronic pain in low dose for almost four years in patients who are not taking opioids, and in ultra low microgram dose for more than eight years in patients who are on opioids for pain. Some of those case reports are posted on this site.

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Low dose naltrexone, LDN, may be effective for Autism, Multiple Sclerosis, and some autoimmune diseases. Jarred Younger at Stanford has shown fibromyalgia symptoms are improved by LDN; Jill Smith at Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, has shown remission in Crohn’s Disease with LDN; and Bruce Cree at UCSF has shown improved quality of life in a small study of Multiple Sclerosis that he is pursuing with larger multi-center studies.

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Case Report

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This week I saw a young man who traveled from Northern California for me to possibly treat major depression with nasal ketamine. Depression prevented him from working for the last two years. He scored 34 on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Scores over 24 indicate severe depression. On June 4, 2012, we started his treatment using ketamine nasal spray. The daily dose was increased but has not yet reached an effective level. In my experience of prescribing ketamine for pain and depression in the last eleven years, the dose differs for everyone and is not related to age, gender or body weight.

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As conveyed by him to me, his progress thus far:

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ON JUNE 7, 2012, early morning, he used 40 mg of ketamine by nasal spray. He reported feeling dizzy, experiencing spinning sensation for two hours and then was his usual self, i.e. he felt bad the rest of the day as his usual self but vision was better. His strabismus (lazy eye) usually depends on better mood, but mood was unchanged.

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At 3:00 pm, he took naltrexone, a very low dose approximately 4 mg.

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ON JUNE 8th: approximately 12 hours later, he woke at 2 AM. He later told me that he was feeling “extremely sharp! I felt great! Clear in mind, quiet and calm. I didn’t realize how noisy my mind is till everything felt calm.” He returned back to sleep.

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He woke again at 6 AM feeling great! Not thinking negative thoughts, but no other change, i.e. did not like or love activities or people anymore than in recent years with his depression.

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At 1:15 PM, in the office his self-rated improvement of depression was 40% due to the low dose of naltrexone taken yesterday afternoon. He had no effect from ketamine as yet, and had not used any in more than 24 hours.

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My plan has been to trial low dose naltrexone for persons with treatment resistant depression. If it is effective, then ketamine is not needed. Ketamine is a short acting medication and may pose issues such as tolerance, whereas low dose naltrexone is simple, once daily, used with few side effects and has never caused tolerance in my clinical experience.

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It is very possible that with such rapid improvement overnight and continued treatment, his depression will continue to improve over coming weeks and months.

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~~~~~

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,

and is not a substitute for medical advice,

diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

.

Please understand that it is not legal for me to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office or contact your local psychiatrist.

~

~

For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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Severe Pain for Three Years,

 80% better in 10 days

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“This has been life altering.”

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This is a very bright young woman who was an all state volleyball player until onset of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome three years ago in the right hand and wrist. It began after blood was drawn from the hand for a chemistry study and, one week later, the fingers turned black, lost blood flow, followed by emergency surgery for removal of a blood clot from the back of her hand. She woke after surgery, tearing the sheet off due to intense pain on light touch — that is called allodynia — and then developed severe edema from the hand to the shoulder.

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It was four excruciating weeks before the diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome was made.

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CRPS or RSD is a diagnosis that every MD,

every surgeon, every ER doctor,

every psychiatrist and psychologist, every nurse and therapist should know how to diagnose.

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Because she was a minor, they would not do nerve blocks.

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She developed contractures of the fingers and hand,

was unable to move the fingers.

  A major university hospital diagnosed Munchausen Syndrome;

mom was diagnosed with Munchausen’s by proxy.

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This happens so often. This is 2012.

If it’s not the doctors,

it’s the insurance companies

creating roadblocks to diagnosis or treatment or both.

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Why is pain management not taught at medical schools?

Only 3% of schools today give 30 hours instruction in four years, Yale most recently.

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At a major university hospital two hours away, she failed to respond to 14 stellate and brachial plexus blocks. But the wound reopened by itself, the stitch fell out. The psychiatry department evaluated her after she was so drugged with methadone, she does not even recall the interview. They diagnosed Munchausen Syndrome. That changed everything. Relationship went sour. Distrust of MD’s began and was confirmed many times in many places along the northeastern corridor and Texas.

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That fall, she became a student at the university of her dreams. The diagnosis of CRPS was confirmed at their university medical center hospital where they wanted to continue the same blocks that had failed. Elsewhere, the chief of a renowned ivy league university pain service wanted to talk to her only about spinal cord stimulators, declined by the family.

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In May 2010, she qualified for an NIH study of neurotropin double blind 6 weeks on, 6 weeks placebo. Failed.

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She was seen by Dr. Schwartzman in Philadelphia October 2011, and sent from there to NYC to rule out neuroma dorsum right hand, negative.

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On Lyrica, she gained 20 lbs, then back to 130 lbs baseline when off of Lyrica. Intolerance to Morphine – hives, Duragesic – total body itching. Ambien – hallucinations, Lunesta – hyper. Benadryl helped somewhat. Detoxing from Nucynta – lips were bright red.

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Her weight dropped from 130 to 115. Many medications were trialed and failed. Marinol helps pain slightly and gives the best sleep in years, better appetite. It does cause anxiety, but she had not slept in three years, and it gives 4 to 6 hours of good sleep. She developed sharp bitemporal headaches. I advised headache is a side effect of Pristiq —- now thankfully discontinued and better.

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Since August 2011, she has had CRPS pain in the right leg, worse walking, weight bearing.  There is discoloration of the dorsum hand usually, at times along proximal forearm, recently at right foot and leg. She had edema up to the shoulder measuring 30 cm. Nails growth faster at the right hand, possibly less hair growth right hand. Temperature usually cooler on the right hand, at times at night the hand and foot become hotter. No change in sweating noted.

The first year, she had almost total loss of function in the hand with pain and contractures —and forced herself to move the fingers with OT and PT, then home exercise. She still has days when the fingers remain flexed, but 98% of the time there is full movement as she continually tries to use the hand/fingers to write and type. Nose may become ice cold and tingly since CRPS spread to right side of face and right lower limb. At times tingling fingers. She struggles with memory when pain is severe and with lack of sleep.

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Pain ranges 7 to 10, average 8. Edema was significant for one year, now comes and goes. Allodynia is present hands and feet, now a different scale than before when she could not even be in the car.

However, with weight bearing and walking, pain of the right lower limb became most intense.  She will be 21 in July, but on a bad day was unable to leave her bedroom to walk downstairs as pain was too severe. She would communicate with family by loudly calling or texting. It was unthinkable to make plans for the next week due to severe pain. She has osteoporosis with atrophy of the right upper limb, and has had color changes and edema of the hand.

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She lives in an eastern state inland, two hours away from the mid Atlantic seaboard and major medical center. She failed ketamine infusion at a major university medical center on the east coast. The cost and inconvenience was significant and the family did not know that ketamine may fail to have any effect if taking opioid analgesics. Once mom discovered that, she was able to wean off the opioid medication. Ultimately, after many more interventions, much later, in crisis, she did benefit from IV ketamine infusion, and was able to regain some movement of her fingers on the right hand, but there was no lasting relief. It was a struggle to obtain approval through her insurance.

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She has been spending a great deal of time in bed for months. Morning stiffness is widespread for one to two hours. Bending is difficult, feels as if “hit by a bus,” but she does stretching, moving, distraction and Yoga when able.

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Much better in 10 days

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Day one: pain of the entire right side, face, trunk, limbs, rated 7 to 10 on a scale of 10, average 8. She guards the dominant right hand and the signature is difficult. Atrophy of the right upper limb is present, nails longer on the right hand, dusky dark erythema and long jagged scar over the dorsum right hand, mild erythema of the right upper and right lower limbs.

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On the first day, in the office, she tried the first dose of ketamine nasal spray and after a repeat dose, she was puzzled, thinking to herself, then let us know she realized she was able to concentrate. A small dose is not enough to relieve severe pain, but even major depression can vanish at that dose. Two sprays relieved the brain fog of depression; pain was still 8 on a scale of 10. Blood pressure and pulse did not change before and after doses. She felt hopeful.

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In the next few days she was able to do the unthinkable: make plans with friends, walk 45 minutes, become active, and remain active in a way that had not been possible. She was far more active with much less pain.  Over the weekend, six days after she arrived, after we had sequentially added several new medications, she found the dosage of nasal and sublingual ketamine that worked for her. She has actually had times when she was pain free. As noted during prior ketamine infusions, she requires a far higher dose than most patients to achieve effect. The plan now is to use higher doses at home when time permits for best effect, and booster sprays of nasal ketamine as needed when away from home. She can carry it in her pocket. There is no need for ICU infusions and the fight to get insurance coverage for those stays.

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Of great significance, she has even made plans for the entire summer.

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More details of her case will be added, as time permits. For now, this page is here to allow the patient and family and others to send comments. She will continue slow titration of other medications that will take three months before reaching the target dose, before we can assess efficacy. Based on my experience treating chronic intractable neuropathic pain including CRPS, it is possible these medications will be able to stabilize and relieve pain without ketamine.

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See other case reports of treatment of CRPS here, here, and here.

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You can read some of the science of pain, glia and inflammation. Ketamine is significantly anti-inflammatory. Three of her new medications are glial modulators. Treatment of severe chronic pain usually involves rational polypharmacy, not one medication and not medication alone. It requires a holistic approach to heal: P.T., O.T., massage, cognitive behavioral therapy, guided imagery, visualization, positive thinking, remaining active, and other modalities that depend upon the underlying cause: physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial. The treatment for CRPS is not specific for that condition alone, but the gains can be possible with tremendous discipline, effort, single minded determination and the loving support of friends and family.

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Be cautious of spinal cord stimulators. Try everything else first.

They can create pain and scarring or tether the spinal cord.

Be proactive.

Remember that guidelines and strategies for diagnosis and treatment are outdated.

Support RSDSA.org if you can.

They support high quality pain research.

You can go directly to their site or donate to them (not me)

using the link at the top of my site here.

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Patients and doctors do not understand that opioids create pain.

A 2006 publication from Vanderbilt shows how much better pain can be to taper off.

The abstract:

Significant pain reduction in chronic pain patients after detoxification from high-dose opioids.

The article:

Significant pain reduction in chronic pain patients after detoxification from high-dose opioids.

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More on this young woman’s journey coming.

It’s been busy!

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~~~~~

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,

and is not a substitute for medical advice,

diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~

Please understand that it is not legal for me to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, you will need to telephone my office.

~

~

For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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Radly Balko reports on the war on prescription painkillers in the first of a three part series.

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Bad policy, driven by the war on drugs, has been affecting patient access to opioid medication the last few years and availability is becoming more unpredictable every year.

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“…drug control has taken priority over ensuring access to effective treatment….Police and prosecutors now dictate medical policy.”

..

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and

is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

.

For My Home Page, click here:  

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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 Three important new articles from March, August and November 2011, show ketamine acts on glia.

Emphasis within articles is mine.

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Microglia: a promising target for treating neuropathic and postoperative pain, and morphine tolerance.

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Girl with CRPS cold type two years, pain free on naltrexone 3 mg

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KR, 17 year old seen 11/4/11, with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome [CRPS] involving left lower limb from foot to hip, onset 3/09. She has nonspecific immune system abnormalities and many food sensitivities that caused leaky gut syndrome and 30 lb weight loss with certain foods causing the stomach to be rock hard and vomit. Elimination diet allowed her to regain 30 lbs.

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CRPS diagnosed February 2011, two years after first symptoms. The leg was cold, purple, mottled with allodynia. Pain had been 9 on scale of 10 for weeks prior to my visit when she was started on prednisone 60 mg x 1 week, 40 mg 1 week, and a few days on 20 mg, dropping her average pain to 4/10. Pain at my visit 11/4/11, ranged from 4 to 9, average 5, that was 40% better after prednisone. She takes a wheelchair to school and for distance, is able to walk short distances with cane, and without cane she concentrates walking slowly to avoid limp. She is very bright, highly motivated and described the limb as cold, aching, throbbing, shooting, stabbing, sharp, tender, burning, exhausting, tiring, miserable, unbearable. Pain severely interfered with walking, work, sleep, enjoyment of life, general activity, and relations with others. At rare times, the limb would jump. Numbness was present posteriorly off and on, especially when sitting, not present when standing.

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She had good health until mononucleosis at age 13 in October 2007. A few weeks later irritable bowel syndrome began (IBS-C), then CRPS began after injury March 2009, reinjury July 2009, then no problems until February 2011. The initial injury occurred when roughhousing with a friend, and her foot pulled her toes in a dorsiflexed position. The next day it was swollen and purple with bruising pain after the first injury. She was in a boot for several weeks. CRPS improved, she went to Peru climbing Machu Pichu when she was reinjured again. The foot was swollen, burning with allodynia. She was taken to a hospital in Chile where they wrapped the foot, advised to take Advil. Once home, she went to physical therapy. It resolved in 6 weeks.

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February 2011, fulfilling PE for high school, she tried out for swim team. Day two, she had pain from kicking in the water and was never able to get back into the water. She was in crutches the next 2.5 months and began physical therapy three times weekly since then. Pain began in the sole of the foot, but a slip and fall in the rain caused pain to spread to the hip. A flare in the past month caused pain much more in the left knee after prolonged sitting for tests. She now takes her wheelchair to school which she began to use early October 2011. She was in the chair consistently two weeks, now only as needed, and never uses it at home. She has used a cane since later April when she got off her crutches. In hot weather, the cold left lower limb sweats profusely. No hair changes. On prednisone, toes nails grow faster. She has used warm and cold compresses to relieve pain. She failed gabapentin when it caused her to be nonfunctional on 900 mg/day with no relief. Lyrica caused hives. Nortriptyline caused personality change, becoming very mean, an Atilla the Hun, opposite her usual good nature. Cymbalta 20 mg – severe dry throat, thick mucous, medications lodged in esophagus. Tried Tramadol 25 mg TID and Naproxen 500 bid.

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Incidentally, she saw a neurologist at Children’s Hospital in 2009 due to sudden onset of diplopia that was found due to allergy to contacts, and resolved with new contacts. She saw an allergist in 2010, and tested positive for nonspecific autoimmune disorder: ANA 1:160 speckled, positive for food sensitivities, and after four months of stopping certain foods, ANA was negative: gluten, dairy, garlic, broccoli, lima beans, banana, asparagus, pineapple, oyster, mushroom. While eating those foods she had IBS-C, stomach would harden, causing vomiting, and she lost 30 lbs, was 120 before —- it is part of the leaky gut syndrome that prevented her to absorb certain nutrients. She has regained weight and all symptoms resolved. She does not have dry mouth or dry eyes. She is sensitive to normal doses of medications like her grandmother.

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Exam: Toes are cold on the left. At the moment, no changes in hair, skin color, temperature, sweating. Stretch reflexes symmetrical, brisk in both lower limbs. She uses a cane but is able to walk slowly without limp, carefully, holding both arms stiffly at her side as she concentrates on walking. Sensory examination was not detailed due to patient discomfort and long trip from home that was very tiring.

.

Treatment: Prednisone was rapidly tapered off. Begin 1 mg low dose naltrexone [LDN]. Begin N-acetyl cysteine [NAC] 600 mg x 3/day for “cold” CRPS – it is reported to take 3 or 4 months to help.

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Reponse: Mom wrote a few days later, “On the way home from our visit in La Jolla, K started to experience sensation in her leg. You had asked her at the appointment if she had numbness and she could feel some in the back of her leg. She didn’t realize the extent of it. The Naltrexone [1 mg] seems to be awakening areas of her leg. She has felt more muscle pain as well. She feels this may be because she is able to use more muscles in her leg with the increased feeling. She also had her foot stepped on the next day (Saturday). In the past, she would have been incapacitated with the pain for a couple weeks. With the Naltrexone, she felt very little pain at all. We were both very excited to see these changes. She is at about a level 3 to 4 in pain.”

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Encouraged mom to continue increasing LDN as tolerated.

11/16/11, ” K is pain free at 3 mg of Naltrexone. We are not sure of any side effects at that level as she has a cold/flu and has had nausea and headaches. She does not have any sleep issues so far. K thought the Delsym was making her lightheaded. She will start it again as soon as she is feeling better.…

.

Needless to say, it makes me very happy to know I am able to help someone in pain, especially a child.

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11/21/11: “We are thrilled too! The only things she is taking is the NAC and the naltrexone. When she tried 2mgs the pain receded to just the upper back of the leg. She also noticed the minor cut she had that day burned a lot. At 3mg all pain just vanished. I can’t tell you how excited we are. Her muscles are a bit sore in the leg as she is exerting herself more in physical therapy…. I am interested to see K’s next autoimmune text results in 6 months. I am wondering whether her Autoimmune test results will be negative from taking the naltrexone.”

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1/15/12, “K has been using the LDN at 4 mg and it is working better for her….Once K has recovered from the mononucleosis and is back on her feet again she will know for sure whether her leg pain is gone when standing in one position. If not, she will try the dose at 5 mg and let you know how that goes.”

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Coming soon, though these stand on their own:

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Modulation of microglia can attenuate neuropathic pain symptoms and enhance morphine effectiveness.

This research shows efficacy of analgesics decreasing since 2000.

~

“The evidence for pharmacological treatment of neuropathic pain” publication is a good meta-analysis of the current state of evidence-based treatment of neuropathic pain.

~

I have quoted extensively from the article as it is important.

~

“Abstract: One hundred and seventy-four studies were included, representing a 66% increase in published randomized, placebo-controlled trials in the last 5 years. Painful poly-neuropathy (most often due to diabetes) was examined in 69 studies, postherpetic neuralgia in 23, while peripheral nerve injury, central pain, HIV neuropathy, and trigeminal neuralgia were less often studied. Tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, the anticonvulsants gabapentin and pregabalin, and opioids are the drug classes for which there is the best evidence for a clinical relevant effect. Despite a 66% increase in published trials only a limited improvement of neuropathic pain treatment has been obtained. A large proportion of neuropathic pain patients are left with insufficient pain relief. This fact calls for other treatment options to target chronic neuropathic pain. Large-scale drug trials that aim to identify possible subgroups of patients who are likely to respond to specific drugs are needed to test the hypothesis that a mechanism-based classification may help improve treatment of the individual patients.”

~

~The bla

The black circles are recent circles, the light circles are from the past. Shift to the right means less effect.

~

“Fig. 1. It shows the combined numbers needed to treat (NNT) values for various drug classes in all central and peripheral neuropathic pain conditions (not including trigeminal neuralgia). The figure illustrates the change from 2005 values in light grey to 2010 values in dark grey.  [emphasis mine]The circle sizes indicate the relative number of patients who received active treatment drugs in trials for which dichotomous data were available. Please note that the differences in study design and the patient populations preclude a direct comparison of NNT values across drug classes (see text). BTX-A: botulinum toxin type A; TCAs: tricyclic antidepressants; SNRIs: serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors; SSRIs: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.”

~

“Fig. 2. It shows the combined numbers needed to treat (NNT) values for different drug classes against specific disease etiologies. The symbol sizes indicate the relative number of patients who received active treatment drugs in the trials for which dichotomous data were available.”

~~

 A disease-based classification: fact or fiction?

~ 

“Since (1) there are no clear indications that specific diseases should be treated with specific treatments, (2) symptoms and signs overlap in various neuropathic pain conditions [6], and (3) currently available drugs act with unspecific neurodepressant actions rather on pivotal pathophysiological mechanisms, at present there is no good rationale for a treatment algorithm that discriminates between underlying etiologies [45]. Nevertheless, the vast majority of trials have been done in painful diabetic neuropathy and PHN and few, if any, in certain other conditions (e.g. Guillain–Barré syndrome and small-fiber neuropathy), and recommending a treatment for other conditions may seem to be an unjustified jump.”

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“Supplementary Figure 1L’Abbé plot showing pain relief for all drugs for different neuropathic pain conditions. Each point illustrates one comparison against placebo (for trials listed in Supplementary Table 1). The axes indicate the percentage of patients with at least 50% pain relief with active and placebo treatment.© 2010 International Association for the Study of Pain”

 ~

Conclusion

~

“Pharmacological treatment still represents the main option for treating chronic neuropathic pain. Our understanding of neuropathic pain-generating mechanisms has grown considerably within the last few decades, but unfortunately this research has not been matched by a similar improvement in treatment efficacy. We are still limited in our efforts in managing neuropathic pain by relying on treating the symptoms of pain rather than identifying the underlying disease mechanisms causing the pain. Although 69 new randomized controlled trials have been published in the past 5years compared with 105 published trials published in the preceding 39years, only a marginal improvement in the treatment of the patients with neuropathic pain has been achieved.”

© 2010 International Association for the Study of Pain

The study is part of the European project, funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only,

and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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Spine Fusions: no better than Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Exercise

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This report, from the Academy of Neurology may help guide you in decision making: 

Deaths, Complications, Higher Costs Accompany Increase in Complex Spine Fusions Among Elderly.

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“Fusion is usually performed for degenerative disc disease for chronic low back pain, but a number of studies have shown that their outcomes are no better than a combination of graded exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy.”

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Tragically, dementia can result from extensive spine surgery. Many factors can contribute to that. If I were having spine surgery, I would look at the data of dementia following open heart surgery and the protective benefits of ketamine given prior to surgery. Ketamine can spare neuronal function. It is neuroprotective. I link to a publication on that in this post. The problem may be that so few physicians are willing to provide ketamine as they may lack information on its use, yet it is one of the safest medications we have, nontoxic and neuroprotective.

~

~

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,

and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

~~

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Glial research key to intractable pain?

These are not ordinary cases.

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These patients have failed every known treatment for years under the care of well known specialists.

They show a remarkable and lasting response to these simple medications.

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The response is important because these medications are 

(1) available, low dose, nontoxic medications largely ignored by the medical community for pain,

(2) glial modulators, and

 (3) more glial research is urgently needed for millions with intractable pain.

******************************************************************************************************************

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May 2011: The World Health Organization says undertreated pain is America’s #1 public health problem

Department of Health and Human Services says that patients with chronic pain

outnumber patients with heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined

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Fibromyalgia Disabling, Responds to LDN & Dextromethorphan

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AP, 75 years old with scoliosis, restless legs syndrome, anxiety, seen 8/6/04: Onset of fibromyalgia in 2000 after losing half her investment portfolio. It began with acute onset of severe arthralgias, myalgias, fatigue without fever, that prevented her from returning to her business as an art dealer for corporations, private collections. It disappeared without a trace suddenly in 2 months. She was nearly bedridden, just able to sit in a chair, diagnosed as fibromyalgia by a rheumatologist.

~

Two years ago, pain, fatigue and “brain fog” returned in 2002, now disabled with intense muscle ache across upper and lower back, circumferentially in thighs/legs, everywhere except head, trunk, feet, fingers – stable since acute onset, markedly interferes with activity, mood, thinking, walking, sleeping, doing her checking account and driving. Pain ranges 2 to 10, average 4 to 5. Burning pain is recent, across upper thoracic and arms, avoids simple activity to avoid flare.  She rated moderate depression due to pain and inability to be active and live a social life. She has been unable to resume walking, a favorite activity. Exam: very anxious, muscle tenderness 18 points, including buttocks, calves, iliotibial bands, right cervical-thoracic paraspinal more than left. Spine tender at almost every level, maximal at L4-5. Sciatic notches tender. Both legs severely discolored brown from chronic venous insufficiency. Gait very slow, wide based later found due to cerebellar atrophy (MRI).

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Oxycontin was started and changed to fentanyl 50 mcg/hr every 72 hours. Fentanyl was then decreased to 25 mcg/hr after adding Fentora 100 mcg twice daily, Lyrica 50 mg at bedtime, with mirtazepine 15 mg and temazepam 15 mg for sleep. She continued to have marked difficulty walking, concentrating, thinking, and was unable to drive or do her checking account. Constant issues with constipation required multiple preparations for stool softener, laxatives, anti-emetics; hypertension was difficult to control, and she had high anxiety and stress.

~
Fibromyalgia was then helped somewhat by pramipexole 0.5 mg twice daily, amitriptyline 20 to 50 mg/day, Lidoderm 5% patches 3 per day, clonidine 0.1 mg twice daily, that allowed fentanyl patch to be discontinued and lowered her opioid requirement down to Fentora 100 mcg bid, still with some constipation but less.

~

11/3/08, started low dose naltrexone [LDN] 1 mg – slept only 3 hours that night. On 4 mg, no sleep at all, 1 mg somewhat better, 2 nights after that back to usual sleep but Pain levels low 0 to 3 limited to low back ache.  Before LDN,  pain ranged from 3 to 8, average 5. She had no withdrawal from opioids.  BM’s were excellent for at least 3 days.  Sinemet 25/100 replaced Fentora for restless legs syndrome.

`

However, LDN was discontinued a few weeks later as she had so much energy she was hypomanic. Months later she again developed some pain.

 `

4/8/09 started Delsym 2 teaspoons every 12 hours. Pain dropped to zero. She never needed opioid again, had no withdrawal. A dose of Delsym is the same as long acting dextromethorphan [DM] 60 mg capsules, but 60 mg was too strong for her —- she became hypomanic again. DM allowed her to become pain free. She stopped DM 10 days, feeling so great she forgot to take it until low back pain returned initially mild, then severe. “I started getting back pain, I thought it was just back pain. I have scoliosis, then it became very severe, then realized am I getting fibromyalgia again.”

`

After resuming DM, it took only 3 days for pain to come down from 10 to 3-4, then less and less to 1-2 on scale of 10. She was back on DM 4 days. Today, after being off DM and getting return of pain, she is now still using a Lidoderm 5% patch daily to the low back and occasional Aspercreme to groin qhs. Did not need to use these when pain was zero.

`

She is 80 years old feeling better than she felt when she was 50!  “My biggest problem is slowing down. I’m 80. I enjoy doing what I’m doing. I like being alive. I’m a little hyper so I stopped drinking coffee.  Hyper because so excited about life, and catching up to what I could have done.” She is now able to clean and organize things she put off for years while in pain. She began designing bathrooms and kitchens for more than one location and waking up after 6 hours of sleep to begin work all day. Her husband describes her as having the energy of ten people. He needs to interrupt her to stop work and have lunch.

`

“It changed my outlook, I’m so much happier. I am in heaven. I am back to my mental age of 50. I feel alive with energy, vibrance, lust for life. I drive clearly, I have a brain, my reaction to the wheel, to moving and turning and seeing things is better.”

`

10-19-09, with mild recurrence of pain, she was advised to continue DM 60 mg  AM and PM, add naltrexone 4.5 mg PM, continue both for 1 or 2 weeks and discontinue if no more pain.

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7-26-10, experimented with timing and dosage, 4.5 mg LDN best at 5 or 7 AM, 2 to 4 PM, and bedtime.  DM 60 mg twice daily. Voltaren gel qd < 1/2 tsp total in AM only at times variously at hips, back, medial arms, groin, thighs, behind knees where pain occurs when it occurs. Rates pain 0 to 2, avg 0. Has pain if waits too long to take LDN too long.

`

“I feel wonderful. I don’t feel high. Normal, comfortable at ease, mentally clear – more than in years, memory is better – even helped dyslexia. Now I’m able to skim reading.” She reads faster, is able to multitask ten things at once and get them all done. Husband says, ”She has boundless energy.” Biggest problem is instability gait, wobbles. Fear of falling. Fell backwards in bedroom one month ago,a  trip and fall onto her back, bruised posterior thoracic and right arm. Had home PT. She works out in gym, treadmill daily. Exam: 2/3 of proximal legs and both feet now normal skin color. Gait slowed. Wide based. MS and mood – excellent. Drowsy [never sits still at home].

`

Fall 2010, husband reports her gait markedly improved, faster, more stable after dental prothesis. She is walking faster. She is now 82 and full of energy. Visits initially were monthly for several years while on opioid analgesics, now seen 2 or 3 times a year for minor adjustments and off opioids since 2008.

`

Of course all specialists have stories of unusual responses,

but these are responses to the combination of medications that I use, that are not used by other MD’s.

~~~

Transverse Myelitis Responding to Low Dose Naltrexone

~

There is currently no known treatment for Transverse Myelitis. It is very rare, if ever possible, to be able to reverse lesions of the brain and spinal cord seen on MRI, especially if chronic. This man is responding to this tiny dose of naltrexone, 1/6th or 1/8th of the smallest tablet.

~

FB, 47 year old male triathlete seen 11/1/10. He was in excellent health until 11/09. He began to have interscapular pain worse on the left, days later a band around the waist approximately T8-T10 described as “muscular” discomfort, later with numbness in the same area, followed by weakness, spasticity of the left lower limb and atrophy. Intermittent Lhermitte’s, now resolved. Hypersensitivity to sensation of his shirt across his chest and shoulders lasted 4 to 6 weeks with initial onset. Initially misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. MRI and spinal fluid led to diagnosis of transverse myelitis.

~

On 3/11/10, MRI cervical and thoracic cord [probably the second MRI of two sets of MRI’s] showed extensive parenchymatous lesions extending at least 10 segments from T1-T10 with extra-axial fluid collection that appears as an extensive arachnoid cyst over multiple levels. No obvious cord compression. CSF Mixed lymphocytes with reactive pleocytosis, WBC 2/cu mm, 97% lymphs, 3% monos.

~

Diagnoses  11/1/10:  Transverse myelitis with foot drop, spastic monoparesis, atrophy of the left lower extremity, neurogenic bladder, constipation, band around the lower thoracic “waist” onset 11/09, self-treated by injections of B12 with declofenac.   He also had gluten intolerance – eating gluten flares above symptoms

~

1/27/11, return visit: “I feel l ike I’ve come light years away” compared to one year ago.

Low dose naltrexone [LDN]  prescribed November 2010, took for few months. Felt immediate effects, improved in strength at left lower extremity, foot drop still present but no longer catches toes on curbs or steps.

He increased dose to 7 or 8 mg, began to feel slightly weird, mild insomnia, like head felt a little weird. Stopped LDN a couple months.

Resumed LDN April 2011,  and again began to feel positive effects; used it daily since then, probably 6 to 7 mg/day.

Resolved: burning pain both feet had radiated up the calves when seen 11/10 ––> discontinued gabapentin one year ago, about 1/10.

Resolved: banding around the waist.

Improved strength 30%  in left lower extremity, still unable to push off with the left foot, but no pain.

Improved: Occasionally used to get a trembling in the left leg evenings 7 or 8 pm, shaking every 20 secs for an hour, at times preventing sleep – resolved about 4 months ago, occurs now perhaps 1 or 2 days a month.

Improved bladder urgency, must find toilet 3 minutes before he voids, now limited to the first 3 hours of the morning.  Before, he could not be far from restroom. Rectal sphincter feels weak.

~

In December 2011, he felt symptoms were plateauing, slowly getting better. Went on vacation in January, ran out of LDN for 11 days and is today 30% weaker. That was the longest time he has been off LDN in the last 9 months. The left leg feels a little like spaghetti. When on LDN, he felt stronger when lifting the leg.

~

Sleep: When began LDN, had 3 or 4 months of vivid dreaming, but urinated during sleep 2 or 3 times a month while have the vivid dream that he was voiding. That resolved.

Still has weird sensations: right foot a little burning sensation, not pain, of the whole foot, lasting 1 or 2 hours, quite tolerable, nothing like it was before when pain radiated to the calves of both legs.

His medications:  LDN, vitamin D3, alpha lipoic acid, Fish oil 2 or 3/day,

Every couple weeks he gets an injection of B12 and diclofenac 2 vials to buttock and feels definite benefit – I warned not to use diclofenac due to high risk of heart attack, cardiac arrhythmias with this NSAID.

~

~

Spinal Stenosis Pain Responds to Nasal Ketamine

~

ML, 81 year old diabetic woman with heart surgery 9 months ago, reports that she was able to walk 26 miles a day in Snow Canyon Utah 10 years ago, but barely able to walk room to room the last year due to lumbar pain and weakness from spinal stenosis. Function failed to benefit from tramadol 100 mg x 3/day and she disliked the side effects. Gabapentin failed to help, but when she tried to stop, she had severe nausea and she lost so much weight in four days that her endocrinologist advised her to resume it.

~

Nasal ketamine was started with excellent results allowing her to walk again. Unfortunately, on her own, she abruptly and almost immediately stopped tramadol which resulted in severe opioid withdrawal: severe vomiting, dry heaves and watery diarrhea for 48 hours. She was admitted via ER with chest pressure and muscle strain of abdominal muscles from vomiting. EKG and chemistry ruled out heart attack. Low potassium was corrected and she returned home the next day delighted with pain control.

~

A few days after hospital discharge she reports: “Feeling good, actually exercising in the pool every day, 30 minutes without stopping.” Weather here has been sunny 80 degrees this January. “I never built back my stamina after the heart surgery because of the pain.  I think I am finally on the right  track and it feels good!!” Her son is coming over to walk around the block with her tomorrow.

~

~

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 Complex Regional Pain Syndrome 70% Better in 6 Weeks after Opioid Detox,

Responding to Low Dose Naltrexone, Ketamine, Lamotrigine, Memantine

~

AD, 23 year old male athlete with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome [CRPS] caused him to be bedridden 4.5 years on opioids. Pain was so severe he was unable to eat and lost 30 pounds of muscle. He was slowly able to bear weight and walk 5 or 6 steps with an underarm crutch, but used a wheelchair when not in bed. Fatigue was severe and unbearable just to be out of bed a few minutes. Pain involved all limbs, but focused at the cold right lower extremity, particularly the knee where he had maximal pain. He is tall and weighed 110 pounds when first seen July 2011.

~

I advise patients that opioids create pain.  I am guided by a colleague who detoxed thousands of persons in pain over a 20 year period and never once found the patient had more pain after detox. Confirming this, Baron and McDonald published Significant pain reduction in chronic pain patients after detoxification from high-dose opioids in 2006. Some of the science  is discussed here.

~in 2006

This young man decided the night of his first visit to stop opioids and was admitted for symptom control with opioid withdrawal. He was started on low dose naltrexone [LDN], N-acetyl cysteine, dextromethorphan, slow titration of lamotrigine and memantine slow titration, and oral ketamine. Six weeks later he returned and rated himself 70% better, no longer in a wheelchair, not needing a crutch, but still with significant fatigue that caused him to need to lie down during the day. However, he was able to return to his MBA program by September and is doing well in college.

~

~

  CRPS pain 70% Better in 6 weeks on Low Dose Naltrexone [LDN], Patient with ALS

~

FG,  a 71 year old woman with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome [CRPS] and severe burning pain in the legs that markedly interfered with sleep, was seen in fall 2011 for pain in the legs that began two years ago after thoracic fusion October 2009, with cage and titanium rods T4-T9. Disc at T5-6 was compressing the spinal cord and there was an asymptomatic T4-T5 compression fracture 4 to 5 years ago. After thoracic fusion she was able to use a walker for a time, but had weakness progressing to paraplegia and had been in a wheelchair for 6 months. ALS was diagnosed at two university medical centers. Her feet were deep purple, swollen twice their size. and now back to normal size after 7 low power laser treatments. She was now having a frequent ache in both deltoids for a few months from needing to use her arms to push up from the wheelchair. Recently she had severe weight loss with shortness of breath, and during sleep used CPAP for obstructive sleep apnea. Polymyalgia rheumatic from year 2000 was in remission – she’d been on prednisone 5 years until 2005. Breathing was shallow, FVC 1.72 is 54% of predicted.

~

She had a spinal cord stimulator at T10-11.

Medications tried and failed: Cymbalta 30 mg maximum dose, Neurontin 400 mg BID maximum dose, Lyrica dose unknown. Fentanyl patches no effect.

Methadone 25 mg/day for 1.5 years, is the only medication that helps, estimated 80% relief, nevertheless described pain as severe. She used it 5 of 7 days. With ALS causing progressive respiratory difficulty consistent with neuromuscular disease, it was deemed dangerous to continue an opioid. 

~

Low dose naltrexone 4.5 mg to be started after all methadone is out of her system. She was started on N-acetyl cysteine 600 mg capsules x 3/day – the standard of care in Netherlands since 1995 for cold CRPS. Lamictal 25 mg, to begin 1 daily for 2 weeks and slowly titrate to 300 mg per day.

~

On return 6 seeks later, she was delighted to report 70% relief of pain. She plans to return if pain progresses.

~

~

Complex Lumbar Disc Disease Markedly Better with Low Dose Naltrexone 

~

CL, first seen age 57, December 2004, for pain right buttock radiating to right leg due to degenerative disc disease with lumbar radiculitis. She injured the right knee four weeks prior after giveaway weakness of the right leg. After the recent lumbar laminectomy in June 2003, she had done well only during the months of October, November, December before she herniated the lumbar disc at L3-4 and declined further surgery. The flare occurred after sitting in a chair for 4 hours taking a class. Symptoms were similar to those she had prior to extensive lumbar surgery but she declined repeat surgery. On Exam, she had positive straight leg raising at 45 degrees bilaterally and diminished reflex right knee, but motor, sensory exam was otherwise intact.

  ~

She had received epidurals perhaps 6 per year from 1999 until December 2004, posing a risk for osteoporosis, and she had symptoms of probable ulcer disease from a steroid dose pack. She had extreme pain during the epidural, but got fairly good relief for only one to two months. Pain in the leg now is 50% less from the recent epidural but will it last?

~

Past Surgery: Cervical laminectomy and fusion C5-C7 with anterior plate, lumbar hemi-laminotomies L3 to S1 on the right and discectomy right L3-L4 in June 2003. MRI done after surgery 4/30/04: 1.  Large right paracentral recurrent disc herniation filling right lateral recess at L3-4. 2.  Asymmetrical right foraminal & extraforaminal disc protrusion at L4-5.  3. L5-S1, mild right foraminal stenosis due to facet hypertrophy & asymmetrical disc bulging on the right.

~

She was started with a Fentanyl patch then changed to Oxycontin but continued difficulty walking, standing, lifting. Flying to Boston to see her son would result in being bedridden for the week in Boston and after returning home. However, a few days prior to another trip to Boston, Namenda 5 mg profoundly helped back pain. She was no longer bedridden but was able to travel up and down the East coast and fly home with markedly improved function. Stretching, doing yoga. Walked briskly on beach with son for quite some time.

~

On  8/31/09 , surgery for hyperparathyroidism removed two parathyroid glands on left side, biopsied on right.  Back pain “killing me” on left lumbar side postop, hospital 1-1/2” mattress caused flare. She was not back on Namenda 5 mg as it was too painful to swallow and expensive on her budget.

~

Low dose naltrexone [LDN] was started 12/12/08, after stopping the Fentanyl patch 2 days previously. On January 2009, she reported: “My pain level dropped to about 2-3 at that time and was down to 1 by Dec. 15th. With the patch still in by bloodstream for those few days my pain level never really spiked.  There was a very even transition from the patch to the LDN. What I do know is that my pain level has remained at about a 1-2 for the past month, even with an increased stress level and much time spent on my feet. [She has had lifelong insomnia.] It hasn’t changed my sleep pattern at all.  I still take the Temazepam several times to help me sleep a little bit better. I’m very happy that the LDN has given me so much relief from the pain I’ve dealt with for over 5 years.”

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1/29/12, she emails, “Although my lower back pain is pretty well controlled, my right knee pain prohibits me from doing many things that I would like to do. However, I had a significant event last night.

.

I awoke at 3AM with terrible stabbing pain going from my right knee to my right foot. I was in too much pain to deal with the Ketamine spray on a Q-tip, so I just used 3 sprays in each nostril, pinched my nostrils together, and tilted my head back slightly. The pain was completely gone in 30 seconds and I was able to go back to sleep immediately. 

.

I used the 50mg/ml dose since I haven’t picked up the stronger spray yet. It was amazing! I’ve continued to use the nasal Ketamine today and it has helped considerably, though not as dramatically as it did at 3AM.

[P.T.] told me there’s nothing more he can do for me.  He said he’d be happy to help me with my re-hab after my knee replacement.  So now I guess I will just have to hope that [my rheumatologist] will be able to offer me some pain relief with hyaluronic acid injections until I can convince myself that a replacement is the only solution.

So the LDN and the Ketamine spray are my constant companions for now.

~~

~

`

 Right Upper Quadrant & Ribs After Laparoscopic Gall Bladder Surgery Better with LDN

~`

CR, 40 year old engineer with scoliosis who had been a triathlete. She first saw me on 6/6/05 for persistent, intense, right upper quadrant abdominal and rib pain that began immediately after laparoscopic gall bladder surgery on 11/17/04, associated with severe fatigue. Pain in the abdominal area was so acute after surgery that she couldn’t swim for four months. Pain impaired breathing and ability to stand erect. She became a long distance swimmer as she now could not do a flip in a pool, run, bike or take part in other sports. Severe pain was triggered even by slight jogging, jarring, vibrations forcing her to buy another car. Positions that relieved right rib pain, made scoliosis worse. Prednisone last year caused loss of memory for  > 1 month of work projects.

~

Spasm along the right lower rib was so severe she once fell out of bed. A cardiologist and neurologist advised removing the lower ribs.

~

Pain was constant mild to moderate at right lower ribs with muscle spasm at the right epigastric area,  intermittently severe stabbing, tender, penetrating, burning.  She describes the pain as a scorpioin tailed dragon that stabs with its scorpion tail and blows fire breath inside the ribs. Pain ranged from 1 to 7, average 4 to 5, and severely interferes with function including ability to concentrate, general activity, enjoyment of life, sleep, work, relations with others and moderately interferes with walking and mood. Each of the 2 times she started P.T., she heard a “pop” when the ribs were released; spreading the ribs relieves pain/spasm.  She tried acupuncture, yoga, Feldenkrais.

 ~

Exam: hyperalgesia over the tender T8 dermatome at the lower right ribs shading off toward T10; easily palpable tender trigger point at right epigastric area that radiates to the right anterior lateral iliac crest suggesting visceral ligamentous problems. Physical therapist noted a stiff band in the right upper quadrant but there are no ligaments in this area of the anatomy. She had temporary relief with adjustments, poor response with opioids and failed gabapentin. Intercostal blocks T8-T10 or T11 and right upper quadrant field blocks using Marcaine gave transient 50% relief. MRI and CT scans failed to disclose any etiology.

By 11/17/05, P.T. had freed several structures about the rib cage, but was not able to loosen the lower ribs that no longer flare out as the left side. P.T. has helped far more than nerve blocks (duration of nerve block effect 2 to 4 weeks if cortisone used, or 5 to 14 days if a field block after miserable numbness 48 hours). Pain is focal at the MCL inferior to the lower right rib, deep under the incisional scar triggered by crunches  (as with use of dishwasher, etc).  She is now able to swim butterfly, but not flip turns – flip turns are a crunch flexion. Right levator scapulae trigger point is flared with the same crunches and “feels related.”  She continues Feldenkrais but avoids flexion,no longer has difficulty breathing and since P.T. has been able to get the inspiration spirometer to the top. Inflammatory pain along the costochondral margins anterior and posterioly from T2 to T12 and below the right lower ribs fairly resolved with the topical ointment ketoprofen 20%, lidocaine 10%. She tried Bengay at the levitator scapulae but stopped Daypro due to burning mid sternum, uses aspirin with yogurt.

~

New spine x-rays were reviewed at Boston Children’s Hospital compared with her most recent 10 year old spine MRI: The ribs are splinted upward where they should be down.  Scoliosis then measured 31 degrees at T1-6, and 28 degrees at T6-11 with the superior iliac crest 1 cm down.

~

February 2009, she started low dose naltrexone [LDN] 1 mg:  For years, pain was 8 to 9, like I had swallowed a fire burning. After LDN it was gone in one hour, zero for 18 hours later returned but much lower 1.5 on scale of 10. Premenstrual pain also was there lower abdominal, prior 3 to 4, down to 1 while taking LDN. A morning swim in ocean usually takes a couple hours of swimming to warm up to get that endorphin high, since LDN now occurs in 20 min. Begins with complete feeling of ease and well being because you’re swimming in cold water, everything is cold and you’re tired, suddenly you’re not tired, its easy, nothing is terrrible anymore, all the frustration melts away. There are no long life threatening events, everything seems easier, you’re happier, and you love everyone. Everyone you see a that moment is beautiful and you love them.  The world is a little slower.  You always feel like you could swim [or run] forever, whereas before that point you feel you can go maybe 5 more minutes.

~
Since mid morning a little hyper – sometimes I am if I have lots of sugar or caffeine [had none], talking faster, less patient slightly -  entire family has ADD or ADHD. 
Slept really well  —- usually has light sleep, poor quality.
I got my desk cleared off for the first time in weeks.
Had sinus headache 1-2 weeks, the head was still unchanged after LDN.
Had night sweats > 10 years, at 4 am none last night, in fact the opposite.  

~

Sleep improves for some while on LDN. It is a morphinan, i.e. morphine like. “I sleep well on LDN… the neuroma in my foot is not gone but hurts less, one of those items I’ve been ignoring because the rib/abdominal pain kept me from hiking enough to care.  So far that’s what I’ve got, for some reason the best dosing for me seems to be alternating 2mg and 3mg. I don’t know why that is. I still get a good endorphin rush pretty early into exercise, even walking which I can do again.  Last week I accidentally walked 6 miles, longest I’ve walked in years!  Next I want to try hiking once the snow is gone.

~

A stingray stabbed her the top of her foot on 4-28-11. Lifeguards usually call EMT for morphine as the injury causes so much pain that people black out. There was profuse bleeding, estimated one cup of blood, and swelling the size of an egg. The entire foot was covered with blood as were the footsteps on the beach. Pain quickly increased to 7 on scale of 10 but never went above ankle, then pain dropped to a 3 before they were able to put her foot into hot water. She was laughing with the lifeguard while being treated.  Swelling was almost gone 4 days later. It was a little tender to pressure, the puncture was still visible. She did not wear a shoe to avoid pressure over the wound, and to keep the wound clean to avoid bacterial infection. People were asking why she was not walking with crutches – not remotely necessary.

~

She has scoliosis and wore braces for it as a child. “I’ve been using the SalonPas patches on my lower back, they give me a minor skin rash but work great. I suspect a combination of topicals and stretches will be the key.  For meds we’d have to be in the office with my records (allergic to tylenol and bad reactions to naproxen/Aleve though I may try it again some day).  Its more a question of what to do about the underlying cause -the spine- and avoiding the pain. I know having the pain isn’t good long term but its minor enough that I really didn’t feel it all this time because my front hurt more.  Peeling the onion!  While I was having a lot of rib pain I would get pulled forward and my lower back would go “out.” P.T. could help that by loosening the front and working the back.  Now it seems more complex to address.  I used to do lots of sit-ups and crunches to stabilize it but P.T. says no to those and my core is pretty stable.  I have been able to do yoga again (another LDN success) and I thought that helped in the past.  I’ll have to continue with that and see if it helps things in the long run….  I have to seek out the spine experts now that I can move more.  My ski turns are uneven, always have been becuase I turn easier to the left than the right (so I’ll turn one cheek more readily than the other).”

>

Vibrations from dolphins ease the pain for days. She has experienced more encounters with dolphins and whales since the surgery. One day when she was aware of squid in the water, she noticed what she thought was the world’s biggest squid swimming 10 feet below her, except that it was a gray whale, which soon surfaced and blew water. Her reasoning for why marine life are attracted to her: scar tissue built up around her surgical scar, which she says makes a squeaking sound in the water. “It might be similar to how they perceive pain and illness.They might be coming together to try to help.”

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~

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Further information will be posted on these cases, and more cases will be added as time permits.

They will include persons who had years of intractable chronic pain that severely limited function, who are now pain free

on low dose naltrexone [LDN] and/or other medications.  Some with intractable chronic pain have now been pain free off LDN and all pain medications for three years.

~~~~~

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,

and is not a substitute for medical advice,

diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~

~

For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

~~

Poorly managed pain can evolve into chronic disease of the nervous system

~

Ketamine is an important analgesic, more important than opioids. It can dramatically reduce pain, and rapidly relieve depression and PTSD.  Please read my earlier posts here and here. And the NPR report here just after I posted this (skip to their last section). Yes, it is FDA approved and legal. One woman said:

.

 ’It was almost immediate, the sense of calmness and relaxation.

‘No more fogginess. No more heaviness. I feel like I’m a clean slate right now. I want to go home and see friends or, you know, go to the grocery store and cook the family dinner.’

.

NPR again reports ketamine’s rapid relief of depression. A 28 year old man whose refractory depression began at age 15, after ketamine, says:

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‘I Wanted To Live Life’

.

Stephens himself has vivid memories of the day he got ketamine. It was a Monday morning and he woke up feeling really bad, he says. His mood was still dark when doctors put in an IV and delivered the drug.”Monday afternoon I felt like a completely different person,” he says. “I woke up Tuesday morning and I said, ‘Wow, there’s stuff I want to do today.’ And I woke up Wednesday morning and Thursday morning and I actually wanted to do things. I wanted to live life.”.

.

Since then, they treated him with Riluzole that is FDA approved for ALS and has one of the dirtiest side effect profiles I have ever seen in medicine with serious organ toxicity. Ketamine rarely causes mild transient side effects, usually none. It appears the concern is how ketamine is used on the street with potential for abuse. I do not see ketamine abuse in my patients, some of whom are on opioids for pain or Valium family medicines from their psychiatrist. All of those have a greater potential for abuse, also not occurring in my patients. Pain and/or depression can lead to suicide.

.

About 18 months ago, researchers at Yale found a possible explanation for ketamine’s effectiveness. It seems to affect the glutamate system in a way that causes brain cells to form new connections.

.

Researchers have long suspected that stress and depression weaken some connections among brain cells. Ketamine appears to reverse the process.

.

It would be of interest to see a case report of the bladder problems they mention. Is this in a single drug addict who used many unknown medications on the street? Several physicians have infused IV ketamine for persons with pain for many years, in far higher doses than I prescribe, with no report of any but transient minor symptoms.

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David Barsook’s 2009 review, reference below, describes changes that cause memory loss and brain atrophy with chronic pain, in particular, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), and they also occur with chronic depression:

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With the onset of chronic pain (including CRPS) a number of changes in brain function occur in the human brain including but not limited to: (1) central sensitization ; (2) functional plasticity in chronic pain and in CRPS; (3) gray matter volume loss in CRPS ; (4) chemical alterations; and (5) altered modulatory controls. Such changes are thought to be in part a result of excitatory amino acid release in chronic pain. Excitatory amino acids are present throughout the brain and are normally involved in neural transmission but may contribute to altered function with excessive release producing increased influx of calcium and potentially neural death.

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Brain atrophy and memory loss has also been shown in chronic low back pain as well as in chronic depression.

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Barriers to management of chronic pain are many:

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Although opioids are effective for acute pain, effective treatment of chronic pain is often daunting, particularly neuropathic pain.

~

Opioids have been shown to create pain causing imbalance in the glial cytokines that favor pain rather than relief of pain. Opioids carry the risk of opioid-induced hyperalgesia which is a severe pain sensitivity. They affect the brain and endocrine system. Opioids may fail to offer significant relief, fail to improve function, and risk misuse, abuse, diversion and death. Their costs are astronomic, insurance coverage is increasingly limited, the potential for complications may be life threatening in a hectic medical setting, side effects can be lethal, lack of physician training in use of opioids and alternatives to pain control lead to increasing deaths, addiction and diversion. It has become a national emergency and a trillion dollar war on drugs.

~

Complications can be greatly reduced through use of a scrupulous history and physical examination, but reimbursement is directly proportional to the shortest time spent with a patient. Will that help assessment and care?

~

Individuals may have dramatically different responses to opioid therapy; some may not tolerate any, and relief must be balanced with side effects that increase as the dose increases. Patient status may change and require IV, rectal or tube delivery instead of oral formulas; drug-drug interactions may require rapid changes, and disease of kidney, liver or brain may require modifications or stopping altogether. They may increase risk of falls and cause central sleep apnea with drop in oxygen because the brain fails to give a signal to breathe.

~

Chronic pain can lead to loss of sleep, hopelessness, depression, anger and other mood disorders such as panic, anxiety, hypochondriasis and post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. Treatment of mood disorders are shown to profoundly reduce pain perception and/or ability to cope with pain.

~

Ketamine is anti-inflammatory and can reduce the need for opioid use, thus reducing the pain and side effects caused by opioids.

~

Nasal ketamine is more effective than oral ketamine for pain relief; oral dosing has no effect on depression.

~

Nasal delivery of ketamine is now possible due to advances in metered nasal sprayers that deliver a precise dose. No needle is required, no IV access, no travel to a specialist needed.

~

You can carry pain relief with you and use it as directed when it is needed.

~

Ketamine is an NMDA antagonist: it antagonizes the NMDA receptor which plays a profound role in pain systems and centralization of pain.

~

Ketamine is neuroprotective and it can help other disease states as noted by Barsook, 2009:

~

Besides improvement in pain, “there may be lessons from other diseases that affect the brain; it is noteworthy that acute ketamine doses seem to reverse depression and ketamine decreased prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers receiving ketamine during their surgery for treatment of their burns. In addition ketamine attenuates post-operative cognitive dysfunction following cardiac surgery that has been known to produce significant changes in cognition. [emphasis mine] The data suggest that the drug can alter or prevent other conditions based on its NMDAR activity where other drugs NMDA receptor antagonists are perhaps not as effective in these or pain conditions. Lastly, NMDA antagonists have been used in degenerative disease (and pain may be considered a degenerative disease as defined by loss of gray matter volume, see above) with mixed effects perhaps relating to how they act on specific NMDA subtypes. Taken together, ketamine may act not only on sensory systems affecting pain intensity, but also on a constellation of brain regions that are involved in the pain phentype. [sic, phenotype]“

~

Side Effects

~

Ketamine is more frequently used in babies and children than in adults because high doses of ketamine can induce hallucinations in the adult. Importantly, it is used in high dose in adults for treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Low doses, cause little or no side effects in adults. If present, they are transient and often resolve in 20 minutes. Patient who respond to ketamine report good acceptance as they find the relief of pain and/or depression far outweighs any short term minimal discomfort.

~

Pain care reform is urgently needed.

~

Research funding for pain is less than half of one percent of the NIH budget. More research is needed, but research on low dose ketamine for treatment of pain and depression has gone on for twenty years.

The public health crisis of untreated pain, which often results in disability, parallels the country’s struggle to halt the cost of health care. The longer a person remains with untreated pain, the less likely they are to return to work or to be employable.

~

Conclusion

~

Pain control requires urgent attention. It is past time to put into practice the use of this valuable medication so people can get on with life instead of being mired in chronic pain that for many risks suicide and ensures continuing decades of disability. Academic studies are usually limited by defining a predetermined dose rather than clinically titrating to effect. Thus no surprise, they find no effect as every patient will have no response until they reach their dose. And that dose, in my experience, falls into a bell shaped curve. One size does not fit all. Some respond at very low dose, others require much more, and the majority fall between.

~

In my experience prescribing ketamine for ten years, only a rare person has problems. Almost all find it has returned function or significantly relieved pain. Some have been able to entirely eliminate opioids that did nothing for their pain for decades, though they dutifully returned to the MD every month to chronicle that pain. Pain continued to be rated ten on a scale of ten; patient always compliant despite side effects of constipation and often depression. My patients find the benefits of nasal ketamine far outweigh the relief of oral ketamine and at much lower doses with fewer side effects.

~

Further, while the pain relief may be short lived, some find it gets better with repeat dosing, and relief of depression may last one to two weeks with a single dose.

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References

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http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/10/1028.asp  Ketamine suppresses intestinal NF-kappa B activation and proinflammatory cytokine in endotoxic rats.

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CONCLUSION: Ketamine can suppress endotoxin-induced production of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-a and IL-6 production in the intestine. This suppressive effect may act through inhibiting NF-kappa B.

~~

Crossover, 20 patients. Ketamine reduced breakthrough pain within 10min of dosing, lasting up to 60min

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2875542/  Ketamine and chronic pain – Going the distance, David Barsook, 2009

• PTSD has a more direct link to suicide than previously thought, a current Texas A&M University study concludes – references below.

• A high lifetime risk of suicide occurs in women who have been sexually and physically abused as young girls.

• More than 300,000 veterans have been diagnosed with PTSD or major depression – many not yet diagnosed.

• Risk of suicide is the highest during the first month of standard antidepressant therapy, and a significant number of patients do not have adequate improvement even after months, resulting in harm to personal and professional lives.
  

• Patients are at suicide risk upon discharge from psychiatric hospitals.
  

• Significant predictors of both suicide attempts and preoccupation with suicide are guilt and anger and impulsive behaviors.

  ~
  ~

• Ketamine is the most important breakthrough in treatment of major depression with rapid and lasting effects.

• Ketmine can help immediately, unlike all other antidepressants that may require weeks or months to work, if they help at all. See NPR report here - that appeared soon after I posted this (skip to their last section). It is FDA approved and legal. NPR again reports ketamine’s rapid relief of depression. A 28 year old man whose refractory depression began at age 15, after ketamine, says:

  .

  ‘I Wanted To Live Life’

  .

  Stephens himself has vivid memories of the day he got ketamine. It was a Monday morning and he woke up feeling really bad, he says. His mood was still dark when doctors put in an IV and delivered the drug.”Monday afternoon I felt like a completely different person,” he says. “I woke up Tuesday morning and I said, ‘Wow, there’s stuff I want to do today.’ And I woke up Wednesday morning and Thursday morning and I actually wanted to do things. I wanted to live life.”.

  .

  Since then, they treated him with Riluzole that is FDA approved for ALS and has one of the dirtiest side effect profiles I have ever seen in medicine with serious organ toxicity. Ketamine rarely causes mild transient side effects, usually none. It appears the concern is how ketamine is used on the street with potential for abuse. I do not see ketamine abuse in my patients, some of whom are on opioids for pain or Valium family medicines from their psychiatrist. All of those have a greater potential for abuse, also not occurring in my patients. Pain and/or depression can lead to suicide.

  .

  About 18 months ago, researchers at Yale found a possible explanation for ketamine’s effectiveness. It seems to affect the glutamate system in a way that causes brain cells to form new connections.

  .

  Researchers have long suspected that stress and depression weaken some connections among brain cells. Ketamine appears to reverse the process.

  .

  It would be of interest to see a case report of the bladder problems they mention. Is this in a single drug addict who used many unknown medications on the street? Several physicians have infused IV ketamine for persons with pain for many years, in far higher doses than I prescribe, with no report of any but transient minor symptoms.

  .

  Memory loss and brain atrophy occur with chronic depression, reported by the National Institute of Mental Health ~2001. The mechanism is described by Barsook referenced here.

  ~

• You do not need to be hospitalized.
  

• A single low dose ketamine treatment, given nasally, may reduce core symptoms of PTSD and depression. It can save your life.
  

• Relief of depression may occur in 2 minutes to 2 hours and may last 1 to 2 weeks.
  

• National Institute of Mental Health published 100% relief in a group with depression refractory to all treatment that failed as long as 43 years.

• You cannot anticipate when suicidal thoughts occur, but you can carry ketamine with you for instant relief.

• Ketamine is not toxic, not expensive, side effects if any are transient – usually none. It is compounded by pharmacy.

  ~

• I can help. I’ve prescribed this medication for 11 years, spoken with some of the world’s foremost psychiatrists. Some of my patients with profound pain/depression travel to Germany for high dose ketamine coma treatment of RSD/CRPS and tolerate those doses. Ketamine is safe even in babies and children. Very few MD’s prescribe ketamine, and even fewer have much experience with it.
  

  ~

• I need to examine you in person.
  

• I can meet with you at my office and it is essential that you meet with my colleagues, a psychologist and psychiatrist.
  

• Time is of the essence because we may need to adjust the concentration of ketamine. We need to determine your comfort level with its use.

•  This must be a team approach.

•  Please ask your psychiatrist to call me with your diagnoses and speak with me in person.

• If you live long distance, this team should include your local psychiatrist, or one nearby, who will prescribe ketamine for depression.
  

• Alternately, I will need to see you in my office every few months to renew the medication.

  ~

• The medical literature on ketamine use is profoundly important. There are over 6,800 medical publications. Ketamine has potent healing powers. Karl Jansen, psychiatrist in London, believes that “ketamine has potent healing powers when used as an adjunct to psychotherapy.” There is nothing like it; however, treatment for serious depression still requires team support, not medication only.

•  The World Health Organization reports that disability to due depression is second only to heart disease.

• Suicide is a catastrophic medical emergency. I cannot stress this enough. Depression is treatable.

• Your death is unnecessary. It would be a terrible loss to all who love you.

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  References
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  http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2013085-clinical#aw2aab6b3b3 Suicide Clinical Presentation

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/ptsd-suicide.asp The Relationship Between PTSD and Suicide  

PTSD alone out of six anxiety diagnoses was significantly associated with suicidal ideation or attempts. Anger and impulsivity have also been shown to predict suicide risk in those with PTSD.

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Articles, below, support use of ketamine for rapid relief of depression, even for resistant bipolar depression. The lead author of the first three studies is Carlos Zarate, M.D., Chief of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Unit of the National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20673547   Rapid resolution of suicidal ideation after a single infusion of an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder

100% response in persons with refractory depression: 29% went into remission, another 71% were responders.

http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/67/8/793  A Randomized Add-on Trial of an N-methyl-D-aspartate Antagonist in Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Depression It even works for resistant bipolar depression

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726824/figure/F1/  Ketamine and the next generation of antidepressants with a rapid onset of action

Potential targets for ketamine and similar agents induce rapid and sustained antidepressant effects. A diagram scientists and physicians will find useful for mechanisms. “Notably, ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects have been shown to be modulated by AMPA relative to NMDA throughput. Excessive glutamate also stimulates the extrasynaptic NMDA receptors, which antagonizes the activation of neurotrophic cascades. The potential sustained (sub-acute) antidepressant effects of ketamine are hypothesized to be mediated by increases in CREB and BDNF expression, as well as the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2.”

https://www.sciencemag.org/content/329/5994/959.abstract mTOR-Dependent Synapse Formation Underlies the Rapid Antidepressant Effects of NMDA Antagonists

“The rapid antidepressant response after ketamine administration in treatment-resistant depressed patients suggests a possible new approach for treating mood disorders compared to the weeks or months required for standard medications….Our results demonstrate that these effects of ketamine are opposite to the synaptic deficits that result from exposure to stress and could contribute to the fast antidepressant actions of ketamine.”

http://psychiatry.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2010/1008/5 Ketamine’s quick antidepressant actions

“The resulting protein synthesis and neuronal alterations in the medial prefrontal cortex are the opposite of those produced by chronic stress….”

 

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute

 for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider..

~

Please understand that it is not legal for me to give medical advice without a consultation.

If you wish an appointment, please telephone my office or contact your local psychiatrist.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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The Immune System and Pain

`

There is a whole new way of thinking of about pain that has nothing to do with pain being

transmitted by nerve cells in well defined nerve pathways.

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In the last few years, we have learned it has to do with activation of glia and the immune system.

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Pain is a central neuroimmune activation.

There is close interaction of nerve pathways and the central immune system.

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Neuroimmune responses parallel but do not always mirror peripheral immune responses.

The differences are critical.

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The science of understanding immune cell-glia and glia-neuronal interactions is in its infancy.

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What are glia?

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Glia are cells in the central nervous system (CNS), the brain and spinal cord. Ninety percent of the cells in the CNS are glia – microglia, astrocytes, oligodendroglia, perivascular glia. Glia outnumber neurons by almost 10 to 1.

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Microglia and astrocytes are immune cells that can release inflammatory responses with harmful effects on nerve cells such as inflammation, toxicity, and excitability. However, scientists are beginning to show that activation may also lead to good outcomes that are helpful for nearby glia and neurons, protecting against inflammation, toxicity and restoring normal pain signaling. In other words, they can restore balance.

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Beneficial and pathological microglia

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Neuroinflammation is a normal and necessary process in the acute phase, but not when it takes on a life of its own and creates persistent pain or disease directed against normal tissue (autoimmune response). They may fail to release protective agents (e.g. BDNF, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor).

“

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Neuron-glia Tetrapartite Synapse

Glial activation from pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory state

(click image to enlarge)

Image from Milligan, E, Watkins, L. Pathological and Protective Roles of Glia in Chronic Pain,

Nature Reviews 10:23-36 (2009)

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Neuroinflammatory Disorders

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There is an growing body of evidence that shows many diverse diseases are characterized by neuroinflammation, such as Alzheimers, Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, neuromuscular and myofascial syndromes and neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome. There are research plans to show activation of glia in other conditions: Tourette’s Syndrome, dystonia, blepharospasm, and torticollis. A neuronal model no longer works to explain these conditions.

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What the heck is microglial activation and priming?

..

How do glia become activated? They are always active, not activated but active, surveying their environment. Something must occur for them to become activated. Similar to a bee sting that primes your immune system, the first bee sting will not kill the person who is allergic, but BOOM! the second sting can kill. Glia can become primed by a first pain, but when pain next occurs, glia become activated and they respond faster, harder, longer.

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When activated, they change shape like amoeba and migrate to the site of injury or infection or stroke or dead cells where they proliferate, release cytokines, and phagocytose (consume) targets such as virus, dead tissue, important in wound healing. Microglia and astrocytes can release neuroexcitatory and pro-inflammatory products and growth factors for pain and hyperalgesia. See links to several recent publications on glia here, and mechanisms here and here. Microglia can repair the CNS. Or, an injury may heal and be long gone, but chronic pain may persist for years. How do we turn it off? The signal is no longer telling us about a new danger.

`

The goal of research is to find ways to interact with the cascades of pro-inflammatory molecules and receptors to restore balance in the system. This is a major paradigm shift in treatment of chronic pain that has already led to many insights. Refer articles here.

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Toll Like Receptors

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Like all immune competent cells, glia have a myriad of receptors on their cell surface membranes. One of the more important are the Toll Like Receptors (TLRs) that are innate immune receptors in the CNS, discussed here. See image, below. TLRs “are key regulators of both innate and adaptive immune responses. The function of TLRs in various human diseases has been investigated….These studies have shown that TLR function affects several diseases, including sepsis, immunodeficiencies, atherosclerosis and asthma…. [They] may contribute to susceptibility to severe neonatal inflammatory diseases, allergies, and autoimmune diseases.” Other studies have shown “Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are essential in the host defense against infections. They also have functional roles in tumor progression and their ligands affect tumor cell proliferation, anti-apoptosis and immune escape. The expression or up-regulation of TLRs has been detected in various tumor cells.” “Dysregulation of these signaling pathways has severe consequences, and causes many autoimmune diseases and chronic pathological inflammation.”

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The Toll Like Receptors are not like other receptors. Not these snug little pockets where naltrexone binds. Instead the Toll Like Receptors are like an entire football field, with enormous nooks and crannies. Unlike other receptors, they have enormous interactions with many molecules and medications, e.g. naltrexone is a TLR4 inhibitor, an immune modulator, amitriptyline is a TLR4 inhibitor. And “Glial activation is now known to occur in response to opioids as well. Opioid-induced glial activation opposes opioid analgesia and enhances opioid tolerance, dependence, reward and respiratory depression.” That source is referenced here. Opioids create pain, not just the dread opioid induced hyperalgesia. Glia also contain cannabinoid receptors. Glia produce endogenous cannabinoids and they inactivate them.

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Toll-Like Receptors.

(Image courtesy of SABiosciences, click to enlarge)

Their action on IL-10 is key and more on that will be posted here later.

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Antibodies for pain?

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Some pain syndromes have been found to produce distinct antibodies.

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There is small but growing evidence that the immune system plays a role in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, CRPS. These individuals have inflammatory markers in spinal fluid and tissue fluids. Recent studies have found antibodies against nervous system structures, specifically, “autoantibodies against an inducible autonomic nervous system autoantigen” in 30 to 40% of persons with CRPS.

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In 2010, a small study found that intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) can provide relief in a tiny percentage of patients. IVIG potentially interferes with those autoantibodies and reduces, i.e. downregulates, the inflammatory cytokines that are important in mechanisms of pain and hyperalgesia in the brain and the body. This study has many limitations but it is a first for IVIG.

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JJ Van Hilten et al have found HLA antigens associated with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome with fixed dystonia. “Our results encourage future studies to evaluate the role of HLA-B62 and HLA-DQ8 in different subtypes of CRPS.” This gene family has important immunologic functions.

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And, epidemiology studies show that persons with CRPS are more likely to have asthma.

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The study of glia is in its infancy but it is growing rapidly in many directions. There are drugs that can distinguish activated glia for targeted treatment, new methods of visualizing glia, new sites for pharmacologic intervention, and nanotechnology to deliver medication directly to the inflammation. ` More will come provided there is philanthropic support for this work. It is heartbreaking that NIH contributes less than half of 1% of its research dollar to pain.

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My thanks to the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association, RSDSA.org, for sponsoring a workshop on Glia and Neuroinflammation that brought together the world’s foremost scientists and provided a unique forum for them to interact and learn from each other.

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It is hoped that their next workshop this year will be on imaging glia. We need to extend the work that has barely begun.`

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.

It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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This is a database of persons who have tried low dose naltrexone, their diagnosis, dosage and response to it, if any. The database lists many different medical conditions.

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For example, persons with Multiple Sclerosis, will choose the link above, that has hundreds of persons with MS who have tried naltrexone. Don’t forget to see more pages once you reach the bottom. For a graph of the overall responses, then go back to the main link on Multiple Sclerosis where you see these choices:

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To view the database please click HERE

To view the Graph on how people feel about LDN please click HERE

To add your experience with LDN please click HERE – of course first select the condition you have, so your entry falls into the proper category.

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If your condition is different, just select the condition from the list on left.

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For example for fibromyalgia:

To view the database please click HERE

To view the Graph on how people feel about LDN please click HERE

To add your experience with LDN please click HERE

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Here for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis.

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If your condition is not listed, check Other on the left side of the list.

This forum is from LDN Research Trust, a registered non-profit Charity based in the UK, with participants from many countries internationally.

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I will soon be posting several case reports of my patient responders, persons with intractable pain from various conditions. Some have been pain free one or two years on naltrexone. Some who had years of previously intractable pain have responded to low dose naltrexone and remained pain free more than one year after discontinuing LDN.

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MECHANISM

for those who like to know the science

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We have known for decades that naltrexone binds to the mu opioid receptor. It blocks the effect of opioids like morphine at the mu receptor. We now know it also acts at another receptor.

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You may wish to watch this video that explains Toll Like Receptors, TLRs for short. This is a lecture by Dr. Rachel Allen, whose PhD in immunology is from Oxford University. After that, she worked at Cambridge University on innate immune receptors such as the TLR’s.

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In 2008, it was shown that naltrexone binds at one of the Toll Like Receptors, the TLR4 receptor. There are 13 Toll Like Receptors, and so far they have studied naltrexone only at one of them, the TLR4. That is important because the TLR receptors are part of the innate immune system.

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The Toll Like Receptors are not like other receptors. Not these snug little pockets where naltrexone binds. Instead the Toll Like Receptors are like an entire football field, with enormous nooks and crannies where it has many interactions with many molecules. Now, in 2010, scientists are asking if naloxone or naltrexone is acting at TLR4 or even higher up in the cascade.

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The study of immune cell glial interactions is in its infancy. Glial cells are the immune cells in your central nervous system (brain, spinal cord). They are very involved in dysregulation of pain systems, neuroinflammation, and some neurological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, infections of the brain, etc.

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One of our distinguished glial scientists, Linda Watkins, PhD, in October 2010, said we are not even sure naltrexone binds to the Toll Like Receptor. Rather, it involves AKT1, close to the TLR4 receptor, very very high up in the cascade at the dimerization step, the recruitment of CD14. This is being worked out now.

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Dr. Watkins with Kennar Rice, PhD, from NIH/NIDA, et al, has a paper in press in Cell:

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Glial activation participates in the mediation of pain including neuropathic pain, due to release of neuroexcitatory, proinflammatory products. Glial activation is now known to occur in response to opioids as well. Opioid-induced glial activation opposes opioid analgesia and enhances opioid tolerance, dependence, reward and respiratory depression. Such effects can occur, not via classical opioid receptors, but rather via non-stereoselective activation of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), a recently recognized key glial receptor participating in neuropathic pain as well. This discovery identifies a means for separating the beneficial actions of opioids (opioid receptor mediated) from the unwanted side-effects (TLR4/glial mediated) by pharmacologically targeting TLR4. Such a drug should be a stand-alone therapeutic for treating neuropathic pain as well. Excitingly, with newly-established clinical trials of two glial modulators for treating neuropathic pain and improving the utility of opioids, translation from rats-to-humans now begins with the promise of improved clinical pain control.

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For chronic pain, targets of interest are: glial attenuation, p38 MAPK inhibition.

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Of interest, a commonly prescribed pain medication, amitriptyline, is a TLR4 inhibitor (Hutchinson, 2010).

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You can read many new publications on glia that I posted on my site here, or find it from the banner at top:

Donate to Eliminate Neuropathic Pain

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I am a member of a Neuroinflammation Research Consortium that will be studying these many conditions, some that are painful, others that are not. They involve glia and neuroinflammation.

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For more discussion of mechanisms of action of naltrexone and other publications I have posted, see here, particularly the paper by Zhang, Hong, Kim et al.

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Finally, for those who may feel they are losing heart because medicine has been too slow to adopt the use of low dose naltrexone, let me point this out:

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Dr. Linda Watkins is a University of Colorado Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a world-renown leader in glia research and the neurological applications of glial attenuation, with a focus on alleviation of chronic pain. She is the recipient of the highest award for distinguished basic science research from the American Pain Society and the 2010 John Liebeskind Pain Management Research Award from the American Academy of Pain Management. She has over 300 peer-reviewed publications including articles in Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, and Journal of Neuroscience. She received over $2 million in NIH grants supporting 6 generations of IL-10 gene therapy research culminating in XT-101.

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.

It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~~~~~

For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

I see long distance patients in my office who generally come for a two week stay, and I wish to encourage their comments on this page. I am sorry I did not post this page for them sooner.

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Most people I see have been tried on every common approach to treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, CRPS. I prescribe most of those therapies as well, but I also use an expanded number of neuropharmacology approaches. Some of these are outlined in the case report I filed in March 2010. Patients have sent comments on their progress, and others have made comments on spinal cord stimulators, below.

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In my opinion, it is important to use rational polypharmacy. When pain is intense, it is important to look at more than one mechanism. Once pain comes under control and remains at zero, then we can slowly begin to taper off one at a time.

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The following describe two of the several mechanisms of interest to me.

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NMDA Antagonists

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The glutamate-NMDA receptor is profoundly important in controlling pain pathways. It is responsible for tolerance to medication and centralization of pain. Research in France has shown that with chronic pain in persons with CRPS there is an increase in NMDA receptors in the central nervous system. After pain control, the increased number of NMDA receptors returns to normal.

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With persistent pain or chronic depression, glutamate increases and becomes excitotoxic. When it attaches to the NMDA receptor, it causes calcium to enter the neuron, creates free radicals, and kills neurons. This leads to brain atrophy and potentially memory loss.

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The goal is to block this mechanism. I use three medications that work at this level.

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Morphinans – Glial dysregulation of pain pathways

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Another important area of focus for me are the morphinans which means morphine-like. Their mechanism of action is at the microglia, the immune cells in the central nervous system. There is important new research on glial dysregulation of pain pathways. Once primed and activated by pain, the next pain insult causes glia to react harder, faster and longer perpetuating pain with cascades of pro-inflammatory molecules. Glial research on pain is very recent, very new, very important, and is a rapidly growing  body of science. It offers an entirely new paradigm for treatment of chronic pain.

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The Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association library has

many research articles that you may wish to read.

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I am grateful to be invited to their workshop on activated glia.

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Oth

Contributing Factors

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I look at the whole person, review all of their medications including their vitamins and botanicals, toxicity and adverse interactions with medication. I check the blood level for 25(OH) vitamin D (done at ARUP labs), parathyroid hormone (PTH) if not already done, and stress the importance of anti-inflammatory diet, fish oil, and adequate levels of vitamin D3.

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Spinal cord stimulators – controversy

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A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses some of the controversy of interventional techniques in this evolving specialty and mentions that some studies are underway to show efficacy. Implantable devices are controversial “and questions remain about the appropriateness of their use.”

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In April 2010, new guidelines were published, updating earlier ones from 1997: Practice Guidelines for Chronic Pain Management: An Updated Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Chronic Pain Management and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.

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“Spinal cord stimulation: One randomized controlled trial reports effective pain relief for CRPS patients at follow-up assessment periods of 6 months to 2 yr when spinal cord stimulation in combination with physical therapy is compared with physical therapy alone (Category A3 evidence).”

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A3 evidence was defined as: “The literature contains a single randomized controlled trial.”

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The guidelines had no references, nor did it indicate how old that study was. A short two year followup and a single limited study after more than 32 years of implanting these devices should call for more research.

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I do not recommend spinal cord stimulators as there is no research showing long term efficacy and no quality evidence showing they are superior treatment. Success declines after placement and that may occur the first day. In fact, there is one long term 5 year European study showing no efficacy after two years. A surgical nurse offered her frightful surgical experiences in comments below. Any invasive procedure may trigger pain in a person with CRPS and removal of the device does not necessarily relieve pain.

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Often patients are not aware that alternatives exist and are not given fully informed consent on the stimulators. Those risks include increased pain with any invasive procedure in persons with CRPS, paralysis, spasticity, infection, scarring, potential flare into generalized CRPS pain. The fact that these leads may be permanent  - they can never be removed – means that person can never undergo MRI scans in future even if they should have cancer or stroke. The leads may become scarred into nerve tissue and tethered to the spinal cord.

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A colleague, a prominent Harvard trained anesthesia pain specialist in practice for 40 years, declines to recommend stimulators or pumps for that reason: there is no long term data proving efficacy.

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Complications of spinal cord stimulators should be published. Perhaps they exist. If anyone has seen them, please advise me. I tend to see the complications or the failures, but those who place them and the corporations that fund them should have a special obligation to study the complications and the long term benefits. Having a spinal cord stimulator does not prevent use of other medication but it may add to the burden of pain to overcome. Nationally there should be an audit of stimulators placed, with patient outcomes including complications and number of revisions made. The risks are too grave not to require this and the cost is too high if there is no lasting efficacy.

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The excerpt below is from a 2003 review on spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. It may be outdated, however Medtronic failed to provide me with any long term studies when requested:

“The use of SCS for the treatment of pain in CRPS (including RSD and causalgia) has been reported in the literature for over 25 years. The consensus opinion from experts suggests that SCS should be considered in the treatment algorithm when conservative or traditional therapies have failed. However, such considerations are not based on reliable evidence generated through well-designed randomized controlled trials. To date, there has not been a systemic evaluation of the existing literature concerning the efficacy of SCS for patients with CRPS.”

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For those wishing to come to San Diego for two week stay, please see information on long distance patients in banner at top of page.

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~~~~~The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and is

not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider. ~~~~~

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I asked an expert, Dr. Ian Zagon

He was very kind to respond

~Dr. I

Dr. Ian S. Zagon is Distinguished Professor of Neural and Behavioral Sciences at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, The Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

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His response:

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There are so many misconceptions about LDN that we could spend an hour correcting all of this ancedotal information. The problem is that patients do not read the literature, and offer their “opinions” as if this is true.  LDN is a great example of the good and bad about the internet.

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LDN is an immunosuppressant – it works through the opioid growth factor – opioid growth factor receptor axis

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OGF (LDN) acts as an inhibitor of the cell cycle, increasing p16 and p21 in the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitory pathway. We are in the midst of writing all of this up for publication. On a practical basis, you would not recommend an immunostimulant to someone with MS or Crohn’s Disease (we just finished a Phase II trial on LDN and Crohn’s right now – worked nicely).

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LDN should be fine for MS – with or without other therapy

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I suspect you will find that you will be tapering your patient off of other therapies very shortly, and having your patient on LDN only.

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Remember – use around 3 mg/day

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Start your patient with LDN daily – try it in the evening.

If there is disturbed sleep, switch to the morning (it will make no difference in efficacy)

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Skip’s Pharmacy in Boca Raton, FL – they are on the web – has excellent LDN (some compounding pharmacies do not use the right bulking agents and the LDN is weak or inactive).

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[PJ's Prescription Shoppe in San Diego makes high quality capsules. And I do at times prescribe a suspension that is easier to adjust doses. The important thing is to use Avicel filler ( microcrystalline cellulose) and do not make SR sustained release capsules....ns]

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I wanted to add that OGF is the real, natural biological peptide and its mechanism is on native physiological processes. LDN is merely a tool to access and take advantage of the OGF-OGFr axis.  There are other ways of taking advantage of this system as well.

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Secondly, OGF and LDN work nicely in combination with chemotherapy as well

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We have a great clinical study going showing that OGF and gemcitabine are a terrific combo for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Patients on OGF alone have lived for 2 years, and right now we have a patient on OGF and gemcitabine who is out around 15 months – and is doing splendidly. We have a paper out on OGF and pancreatic cancer – Phase I. Another study, phase II, is in press in Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials – look for it.

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Another woman, lives close by me, who was an aerobics instructor and has MS, has been taking LDN. She has made a remarkable recovery and is back teaching aerobics. Her family donated $50,000 to our research in honor/appreciation for our discovery, and 8 months later (the other day in fact) she gave us another $50,000. We have a group of researchers now doing the science.

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Dr. Zagon

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Vicki Finlayson and Low Dose Naltrexone

Before naltrexone relieved pain and symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis,

she had used Oxycontin and morphine for a year and a half

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While prescribing low dose naltrexone (LDN) for patients with pain in recent years, I have become deeply impressed with it. Of course, it is inescapable to get very far on the internet without seeing a flood of videos and comments on the use of low dose naltrexone for Multiple Sclerosis. I once spent an entire afternoon reading the literature and watching the videos of patients, doctors, and researchers. How I wish I had the links so I could post them here now! The stories of Dr. Pat Crowley sitting at his desk as his patients in County Kilkenny, Ireland, described the successes they had had with multiple sclerosis touched my heart deeply. Naltrexone is not a cure but its beneficial effects on the immune system have been described here and were first noted by Dr. Bihari in 1985. Dr. Crowley sees results in at least 70% of patients, particularly with neurogenic bladder.

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Vicki Finlayson has had a remarkable recovery from severe Multiple Sclerosis. I hope you will watch her interview here. It was recorded October 2008 at the Fourth Annual LDN Conference held for the first time on the West Coast at the University of Southern California, and is recounted below. Since then she has made it her mission to advocate for clinical trials of this medication but it has been difficult for patients to find doctors who will prescribe it.

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Has medicine come to the point where we no longer listen to patients, only to drug representatives that are only allowed by Congress and the FDA to discuss what has been fully approved with all its risks and benefits? Well….frankly, we are not always told all risks nor are they always discovered until years later. Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist. It will block morphine and similar pain medication. In much higher doses it has been approved for safety by the FDA in 1984 as treatment for opiate addiction, and in 1995, FDA approved for treatment of alcohol dependence. Doctors have been reserved about prescribing it off label for patients who request low doses of naltrexone for medical conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis. But the tradition of using medication “off label” for uses not approved by FDA is still alive. Weighed against the dangers of the illness relative to a small dose of a medication that appears to be benign, it appears to be a worthy endeavor to test.

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How tragic is it to hear a person with Multiple Sclerosis have to define their day in the world by how far apart the bathrooms are when needed for neurogenic bladder? That is the story that urged one Scottish research doctor to pay attention when his patient said low dose naltrexone cured his neurogenic bladder. That changed that doctor’s research career. When years of fatigue and heat intolerance may soon be gone because of this small dose, how can a doctor turn down trying it for a patient? I did a few years ago, to my everlasting regret. I know better now. In my defense back then, I had not heard any information from that patient or anyone about its favorable off label use. It was a call from another doctor. I would like to think that if the patient had made an appointment with me or written to tell me a little about it, I would have said I’d read on the subject.

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Vicki’s Story

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Vicki Finlayson had Multiple Sclerosis for 12 years and was very disabled for several of those years with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

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She tells how she was on Avonex for 6 years that caused flu-like symptoms so severe she was in bed for two days after each injection. She was so disabled her husband had to help her dry her hair. The medications used for Multiple Sclerosis caution about suicide risk and her husband hid knives at night for fear of what she would do to herself. She was unable to work, on medicare and social security disability. She missed the ability to work and says, “I lost so much dignity, I lost my sense of everything my parents ever taught me.”

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She detoxed herself off of opioid medication that had been prescribed for pain. Her doctors failed to help her do that. Apparently, she says, they had no experience with how to take her off those medications. And she began to take low dose naltrexone 4.5 mg. It took away all of her symptoms, including heat intolerance.

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She is delighted to be off of disability and back to work selling durable medical equipment to doctors. And she has been inspired since then to help others by raising money for research on use of low dose naltrexone for Multiple Sclerosis.

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Here is how she did it

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She walked 56 miles from her home in Auburn California to Sacramento in scorching hot 100 degree weather – without any heat intolerance that she had had for years before – to try to get the ear of the governor. She held fund raisers. And she got the attention of Dr. Bruce Cree of the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Clinic to do the first academic trial on use of low dose naltrexone in Multiple Sclerosis, research which apparently was funded by her efforts. She is indefatigeable in her effort to help others.

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Dr. Cree’s poster presentation on the positive research outcome is here along with other scholarly publications on naltrexone. The publication can be read here: “A rapid on-line publication of the first randomised controlled trial of low dose naltrexone in MS in the Annals of Neurology has been reported prior to hard copy publication. The study randomised 80 people with MS to receive LDN or placebo in a cross-over study where people took the LDN or placebo for eight weeks, then swapped to the other study drug. This appears to be the first drug trial in MS that was not funded by the pharmaceutical industry, but by the participants themselves.”

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He closes with: “In conclusion, in this exploratory, single center study, 8 weeks of treatment LDN was associated with symptomatic benefit with respect to mental health, pain and perceived cognitive deficits in MS. Confirmation of these findings in a multicenter trial will be necessary to make definite conclusions about the possible symptomatic benefit of LDN in MS. A longer duration of treatment is necessary to determine whether LDN has any benefit with respect to physical outcome measures.”

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Here is a link to more clinical trials on low dose naltrexone, and here is a

summary of the first European LDN conference in April 2009 at Glasgow University.

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Vicki is very realistic about the chance of this work being extended by any university, NIH or the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. They rely on tens of millions of dollars to do the costly multi-center long term drug studies that must be done for this condition. That will not happen with a drug that is inexpensive, generic, and holds no promise from which any pharmaceutical company may ever hope to profit. Without such double blind studies, many, if not most doctors would be unlikely to prescribe this simple, inexpensive, low dose medication.

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Please see comments, below, that point to an excellent resource called LDNAware.org. “This website is your worldwide gateway to Low Dose Naltrexone information, resources and events.  LDN Aware is a volunteer group devoted entirely to spreading knowledge and raising public awareness about LDN as a treatment for autoimmune disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS.”

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Should LDN be used with other disease modifying drugs for Multiple Sclerosis?

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In my next post of May 16, 2010, an expert answers that question.

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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can

change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

- Margaret Mead

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and

is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

Rational Polypharmacy

Naltrexone is a remarkable drug for intractable pain

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I first saw this RN in June 2006.

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She is now 60 years old.  She was an OR scrub nurse for almost 30 years, but was disabled for the last 5 years before seeing me. She had Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy [RSD] of both legs with “arthritis” of the feet/ankle that felt like she was “90 years old” with cold allodynia. Allodynia is pain from a stimulus such as light touch or a breath or air that is not normally painful. Imagine a light touch that feels like severe nerve pain, one of the most disturbing pains a person could have. The temperature of her feet was 81 degrees, hands 92 degrees.

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Pain of both feet felt like a vise grip, gnawing, penetrating, “like broken bones in the feet,” variable at different times but always worse as the day progressed, with a crushing sensation that penetrated through foot and ankle. She was unable to tolerate socks or anything on her feet after 5 pm, unable even to tolerate air on the area, unable to tolerate coolness below waist, but felt hot above waist. She wore a blanket and covers on the hottest 120 degree days, and forced herself to tolerate touch at the legs in order to desensitize them, as we instruct patients to do. She felt constant tingling numbness of the soles of feet for 3 years, with weakness, stiffness “almost solid” like a block. Spasm in soles of feet had resolved the last 6 months before seeing me.

Pain ranged from 2 to 9 on a scale of 10, where 10 is the worst pain imaginable, worst after 5 pm. Average pain was 3. It interfered with sleep at times, and she used a tented frame to keep blankets off her feet, preheated the bed to avoid any coolness, and avoided cold under all circumstances. In the morning, the joints felt like she had a broken ankle. She would massage the feet with lotion, put on alpaca socks, and slowly begin to walk. Then tried to mobilize the joints. Walking made pain worse though walking had always been a favorite activity.~

Before seeing me she had had more than 10 sympathetic blocks, was hospitalized 11 days due to headache from prednisone 60 mg that had been trialed to relieve her pain. She had been prescribed Procardia to relieve the “vascular” disease that she did not have but the drug led to gangrene of the gall bladder; she had been prescribed almost every “adjuvant” used to relieve pain and as much as 9 grams of Neurontin daily, all of this to attempt to relieve the severe pain in her legs and feet.

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This is how she got better

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When I first saw her in 2006, I prescribed low dose oral ketamine that gave relief lasting up to 3 hours from each dose. She then requested referral to Dr. Schwartzman, chief of neurology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, for continuous 5 day ketamine infusion that was done May 2007. She was pain free but it completely lost effect after 8 months, despite booster infusions every 4 to 6 weeks for 4 hours daily over 2 days during those 8 months. After insurance the cost out of pocket was $45,000 in 2007 alone. Dr. Schwartzman had nothing more to offer after it failed and said most patients have relief for less than 6 months if at all.

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In March 2007, I started her on a combination of Namenda 55 mg daily with lamotrigine 350 mg daily that relieved 90% of the pain, but once every 6 to 8 weeks she needed 12.5 to 25 mg low dose oral ketamine for breakthrough pain. Even more rarely, she used oxycodone 10 to 20 mg.

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In October 2008, adding naltrexone 1 mg by mouth, she became pain free. Since then she has not needed anything for breakthrough pain and on 3/5/09, she reported that her last use of ketamine and oxycodone occurred with the addition of low dose naltrexone.

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In 2009, she hiked 30 miles down the Grand Canyon and back up in 3 days.

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Naltrexone was later increased to 4.5 mg as she completely tapered off lamotrigine.

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By December 2009, the RSD was 98% better and she reported that it was not pain anymore. Medications then were naltrexone 12.5 mg at bedtime and Namenda 55 mg daily in divided doses. She had just a “remnant” of a little buzz, but no crushing except when active, late in the day.

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A few months later she slowly tapered off Namenda with no increase in pain; and in October 2010, on my advice she tapered naltrexone 12.5 mg from daily to every third day. There has been no increase in pain but she is reluctant to discontinue naltrexone for fear that RSD may recur.

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She hikes 2 miles 3 to 4 times a week, does Iron Mountain once a week, does “Silver Sneekers” exercise 1 hour 3 times a week and sleeps well 8 to 10 hours a night without a sleeping pill.

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She remains on low dose naltrexone as her sole medication for this

previously disabling neuropathic pain syndrome~

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She has returned to part time work and spends a few weeks a month traveling the world, hiking, volunteering, sightseeing.

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Research funding is needed to view whether we can detect

activated glia in the spinal cord, as discussed here.

If there are no signs of activated glia, she may feel reassured that the condition has resolved.

Naltrexone is an immune modulator.

The site of action of naltrexone is at the Toll-like receptor (TLR4) attached to the cell surface membrane of glia.

The ability to view activated glia would help greatly in treatment of so many conditions including neuropathic pain.

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Naltrexone

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I have found that naltrexone is a remarkable medication for various pain conditions, and going through the steps of rational polypharmacy may be very rewarding for some patients though at times it may work all on its own. It has caused me to completely reassess how I approach the treatment of intractable pain – not just RSD or CRPS but arthritis, sciatica and various forms of mechanical pain. And it has led to further changes in the timing and dosing of naltrexone based upon the experiences patients have reported back to me over the years. It is hoped that further research will lead to better understanding of how naltrexone acts upon pain pathways. Surprisingly we already know quite a fair amount.

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My deepest gratitude to Dr. Jau-Shyong Hong, Chief of Neuropharmacology at NIH, whose many generous discussions, emails and research publications have helped me to understand it’s profound anti-inflammatory effect in the central nervous system through its actions on microglia. I previously posted a discussion of mechanisms of naltrexone and dextromethorphan in greater detail here. Naltrexone and dextromethorphan are classified as morphinans, morphine-like. They suppress Superoxide, a free radical that destroys neurons which may cause or contribute to Alzheimers and Parkinsons Disease. That research goes back to the late 1980′s and continues to grow. Phase II studies with morphinans are now being done on those conditions. Studies are also going on now with naltrexone/Wellbutrin combination for weight loss. The drug is called Contrave, from Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. and the dose I believe is 32 mg naltrexone – I do not know how they decided upon that dosage.

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In my experience, naltrexone is a very benign drug at these low doses, though colleagues who prescribe 400 mg for the FDA approved use at that high dose may see some liver toxicity. I always begin at 1 mg or 4.5 mg, depending upon whether or not the patient is a slow drug metabolizer, i.e. may lack one of the CYP P450 chromosomes for metabolizing drugs. I have long suspected it also has an effect on the hypothalamus because a few patients with profound postmenopausal hot flashes have reported that is no longer a problem and that their husbands simply cannot believe the bonus, and this may explain the effect upon appetite that Orexigen has found. At higher doses than I generally use there may be some constipation which is treatable. It may cause vivid dreaming in some, and a small percentage may have insomnia for a few days. Pharmacology and safety is discussed here.

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Stay tuned. I’ll be adding more case reports of different pain conditions in the near future. They are truly fascinating. It has changed my entire approach to treating pain.

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Cost

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Wouldn’t it be nice if NIH funded more for pain research? Imagine how much money that would save the country and save the lives of each person with disability who could recover? As I posted here, the American Pain Society has shown that NIH spends 0.67% of its budget on pain research – less than 1% – though 10 to 20% of the population in the US suffers from chronic pain, an estimated 60 million Americans, and pain conditions are more prevalent among the elderly.

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I am told by my pharmacist that perhaps 70% of the time insurance will approve coverage for compounded low dose naltrexone. It is very affordable but some insurance carriers deny payment for naltrexone. Medicare will not pay for compounded medication either. Compare this low cost compound to the wholesale price for 100 tablets of Oxycontin, $1300, which may not be relieving pain – then multiple that by 2 or 3 each month for one patient. Imagine if the $22 billion of federal money for health insurance technology, for software which is untested and will expire in a few years, instead went into NIH funding for pain research. What a lovely thought.

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and

is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~

For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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Anti-inflammatory medication — salsalate, from the aspirin family —

helped poorly controlled Type 2 diabetics lower their blood sugar substantially.

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Fasting blood sugar dropped from 150 to 110

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This is a very interesting report of studies being conducted on fat to unlock the mystery of why it triggers inflammation that leads to heart disease and diabetes. Some startling conclusions are arising from these multi-center studies and the news release nicely summarizes them.

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Although the article does not quote the journal referenced, it does discuss the research being done at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as well as the NIH funded study at 21 medical centers around the country that are now recruiting Type 2 diabetics.

You might find out if a center nearest you is recruiting and be sure to discuss salsalate with your treating doctor before you consider trying it.

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and

is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

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For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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Thi

Analgesic Use and the Risk of Hearing Loss in Men

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Dr. Sharon G. Curhan of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and her colleagues studied 26,917 men aged 40-74 years at baseline in 1986 and every two years. These were men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Regular use of analgesics was defined as 2+ times/week.

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Among all men who used aspirin at least twice a week, there was a 12% increased risk of hearing loss.
Among those who used ibuprofen and related analgesics, there was a 21% increase.
And for those who used acetaminophen, a 22% risk.

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But the risk was much higher when they considered only men younger than 50.

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In that group, there was a
33%  increased risk for aspirin use,
61% increase for ibuprofen and related NSAIDs, and
99% increase for acetaminophen.

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The younger the man and the more years used, the greater the risk of hearing loss.

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The study involved only male Caucasians, thus no conclusions can be drawn on risk of use for women and other racial groups.

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Some supplements can be extremely helpful for conditions I follow in my practice, while others may harm. Go to this constantly updating link to enlarge a brilliant and very useful bubble graph “like painting with data.”

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Their image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble.” Try it!

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When you click to the right of their active link to select a medical condition, it will suggest a supplement that has been shown to help. Then return back, below the graphic to check on cautions and toxicity that importantly is not mentioned in their work.

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As explained for the graph, “This visualisation generates itself from this Google Doc. So when new research comes out, we can quickly update the data and regenerate the image.” The Google Doc is a spreadsheet of references from large human, blind, placebo-controlled trials only, sourced from PubMed and Cochrane that publishes leading medical research.

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CAUTION: Toxicity is still important. For example, even though licorice is helpful for coughs, it may seriously increase blood pressure. Valerian may help sleep but may be toxic to liver and may have a withdrawal syndrome.

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Make sure you check here to review the benefits and toxicity to see how supplements may alter your chemotherapy or medication for heart and blood pressure. Another review here: Use of Herbal Products and Potential Interactions in Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases.

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The paper lists several common common drug-herb interactions: Grapefruit juice can be especially risky, increasing your dose of statins and calcium-channel blockers by slowing the metabolism of those prescriptions. St. John’s Wort raises blood pressure and heart rate;  garlic and ginger increase the risk of bleeding in patients on blood thinners. Soy milk and green tea can decrease the effectiveness of warfarin. Ginkgo biloba, ginseng, echinacea, aloe vera and licorice are also discussed.~

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A recent multi-center, double blind, randomized trial of Ginkgo Biloba involving 3,019 subjects over a median of 6.1 years showed that it fails to help memory. Further, a new report in the Journal of Natural Products summarizes beneficial uses but also discusses toxic effects on heart and brain due to the ginkgotoxin. The authors recommend that sales should be restricted. Toxicity to the heart may occur from heart block, ventricular fibrillation and death. And it may lower the seizure threshold in persons with epilepsy. The toxin depletes vitamin B6 in the brain, impairs glutamate metabolism, and triggers seizures via an imbalance in neurotransmitters: high glutamate and low GABA. It has been shown to induce metabolism of epilepsy medication, thus dropping blood serum levels below therapeutic range further increasing risk of seizure.

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Remember to ask your doctor how these may interact with your medication.

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Check here on Vitamin D, a steroid hormone that is anti-inflammatory. Vitamin D is one of the hottest topics in kidney research and hypertension today, as discussed here. And hypertension is important. The latest research on Alzheimers Disease in the last two years from Columbia University Medical School in NYC tells us that risk factors for Alzheimers Disease are the same as for coronary heart disease: exercise, hypertension, cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking. And research suggests that low vitamin D increases risk of cancer of breast, colon, prostate among many other functions. “Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with suboptimal health.“

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and

is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~

For My Home Page, click here:  Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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