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CRPS Pain for Three Years, now 70 to 80% better in 10 days

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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, March 2009 in the right hand and wrist. It began after blood was drawn from the hand for 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, unable to move the fingers.

She was diagnosed at a major university hospital with 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 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 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 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 years old 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 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. 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 noted.

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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 realized she was able to concentrate. A small dose is not enough to relieve severe pain, but 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.

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

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Many details of her case will be added soon, as time permits. For now, this page is here to allow the patient and family 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.

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) via the link at the top of my site here.

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Patients and doctors do not understand that opioids create pain.

Thankfully we have a 2006 publication showing results of 23 patients from Vanderbilt University, below.

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 soon.

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.

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For My Home Page, click here: 

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

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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.

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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.…

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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.”

The Immune System and Pain

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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 a factor of 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. Our 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?

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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.

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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 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.

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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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In special circumstances, I may suggest a trial of low dose oral ketamine. It is formulated by a compounding pharmacist as an oral suspension. It is safe to use without significant adverse effects, though you may experience transient symptoms lasting 20 to 40 minutes after the first few doses. For most people, it may relieve pain when all other methods have failed, possibly including total pain relief with no side effects in patients who have then been able to discontinue all opioids.

Keep all your medicine, opioids and ketamine, in a lock box to prevent abuse by others. This is a Schedule III drug like Vicodin.

Achieving control of chronic pain requires a partnership

based upon trust and effort

Requirements: I will work closely with you on ketamine and ask you to keep a log of pain before each dose and 30 minutes after. In addition, for the first week I ask that you log blood pressure and heart rate before each dose and 30 minutes after. This requires that you see me in the office one week later. If you have any questions or problems, I ask that you call me the same day, whether it be weekend or holiday. If you are unable to keep these logs before and after the dose, and the appointment one week later, the trial will be discontinued. You have no authority to continue without my consent.

Blood Pressure: Usually no change occurs in blood pressure. Some have reported that ketamine lowers their blood pressure and they are lightheaded when they stand up. If your blood pressure drops or if you are lightheaded, be very cautious as that may lead to fainting and brief loss of consciousness. Anytime a person faints, that could result in potentially serious injury such as hip fracture, other fractures, bleeding or brain injury if you strike your head. Your blood pressure should be above 100 when standing.  Ketamine has been reported to increase blood pressure and pulse, but I have not found that to occur with these doses.

Side Effects: Ketamine has a very narrow therapeutic window for pain control. This means that once you find the dose that relieves pain, a very slight increase in dose may produce intolerable side effects. Unfortunately some patients reach a dose that produces side effects before they experience any pain relief.

Most patients have no side effects with the low doses used by this protocol, though some may have mild symptoms lasting up to 40 minutes. If you do, then try decreasing the dose a small amount.

It is possible but rare that you may experience severe, frightening hallucinations or may feel you are outside the body observing it do things, called a dissociative reaction.

These side effects are dose related and have been short lasting, usually no longer than 40 minutes.  The antidote is Ativan.

Steps to follow: Read all steps carefully before you begin

• Take ketamine 30 minutes prior to your other pain medication

• For the first dose, remain seated or lie down for 20 minutes after you take the dose to avoid risk of falling. Do not take the dose and walk around.
• A few persons have had severe imbalance lasting 10 or 20 minutes. This has resolved after the first few doses in those persons. It may not happen to you, so test with caution. If it has not occurred at the first dose, it is unlikely to occur at all.

• Follow the dosing guidelines in the log I give you and which I repeat in this next step:
  Begin with 0.25 mL and increase by increments of 0.25 mL every 6 hours or longer than 6 hours, until you have some pain relief. Do not increase that dose or dosing interval.

Example: begin 0.25 mL, then 0.5, next 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0

If you have had no effect on pain by 2.0 mL, schedule an appointment for further instructions.
If your pain decreases only 1 or 2 points, that is your dose.  It will NOT get better by increasing the dose.  Stop increasing.

• If you have intolerable side effects, you may use 1 or 2 Ativan tablets immediately as an antidote, and every 30 minutes, up to 5 of them.

• CAUTION: Be alert to the opioid-sparing effects of ketamine!

This means that if ketamine relieves your pain, you do not need to take the opioid as that would be an opioid overdose and may cause serious side effects.

Reduce or temporarily stop your opioid medication if pain is gone after using ketamine.

This is why you take ketamine 30 minutes before the opioid. Some people have been able to completely stop all opioid medication due to pain relief from ketamine alone.

• CAUTION: Do not drive for 6 hours after a dose.

This is for the protection of you and others. You may not be aware of very subtle side effects.

• You may take a dose every 6 hours, or longer than 6 hours. Less is more.

If ketamine loses its effect, stop use for 2 or 3 days, then resume. It can be a fickle drug.  That is why increasing the dose causes loss of effect.

Some take ketamine only before sleep. If you do that, use it 30 minutes before sleep in order to log its effect and take blood pressure/pulse before and after. Continue this initially until further changes are approved.

Ketamine was approved for use as an anesthetic by the FDA in 1970

It’s use for pain is “off label” as it was approved only in high doses for anesthesia. It has been used safely in babies. Unlike opioids, it does not depress breathing or bowel function, and usually does not depress cardiovascular function. Since the late 1980′s, numerous scientific articles have been published on its use as a third line choice for some pain conditions; there are few double blind control studies, one is listed below. If you search ketamine on various internet search engines you find it is abused by addicts just as other drugs are. You find medical articles when you search the literature using Google Scholar or PubMed in the National Library of Medicine. If you find a medical article with adverse effects, let me know. I have spoken to leading brain and psychiatric researchers who have verified there are no lasting side effects from its use.

Many publications on ketamine use multi-day infusions at much higher dosages than the oral dosages in my protocol. Drexel University has treated over 3,000 patients with infusions of 40 mg/hour for 5 days with no lasting adverse effects. Even higher doses than that are used for surgical anesthesia. Ketamine is a powerful tool for treating pain.

Medical Publications

You can click and download each reference in blue below

High dose ketamine improves neurological outcome after stroke in rats, Reeker et al, Canadian J Anesth 47:572-578, 2000

Ketamine, Pasero C, McCaffery M, Amer J Nursing, 105:60-64, 2005
An excellent review, more clinical, easier to read than some more technical papers

Ketamine in Chronic Pain Management: An Evidence Based Review, Hocking & Cousins, Anesth Analg, 97(6):1730-1739, 2003This nine page article is the best comprehensive review of ketamine’s use in almost every known pain condition including post stroke pain.  Easier to read; a catalogue of pain syndromes and references.

Ketamine Stops Aura in Familial Hemiplegic Migraine, Neurology, 55:139-141, 2000 Two mechanisms may account for this. First, ketamine can increase cerebral blood flow, which may counteract the marked hypoperfusion induced by cortical spreading depression, as observed in migraine with aura. Second, in experimental animals, ketamine accelerates the  restitution of neuronal function after hypoxia.

Ketamine oral use in 8 chronic pain patients, Canadian J. of Anesthesia, 2004

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The Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Association library has many articles on RSD, CRPS and ketamine. Remember most of the articles are written for scientists and physicians.

From their library I particularly recommend the first article, below.  The last two are very technical but important new research.

Expectations of Pain: I Think, Therefore I Am, Jones-London M, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

For pain mechanisms, read
Beyond Neurons: Evidence that Immune and Glial Cells Contribute to Pathological Pain States, Watkins L and Maier SF, Physiology Review. 2003;82:981-1011.

For pain mechanisms, read
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS): Evidence of focal small-fiber axonal degeneration in complex regional pain syndrome-I (reflex sympathetic dystrophy),  Oaklander AL et al., Pain. 2006;120:235-243.

There is no link to the following double blind controlled research publication:

Mercadante S, Arcuri E, Tirelli W, Casuccio A. Analgesic effect of intravenous Ketamine in cancer patients on morphine therapy: a randomized, controlled, double-blind, crossover, double-dose study. J Pain Symptom Manage 2000;20:246-252. Mercadante et al compared intravenous infusions of Ketamine (0.25 and 0.5 mg/kg) with placebo in a double-blind, crossover study of 10 cancer patients with neuropathic pain.

Please note that the free Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to read some references.

You can download the free reader now.

~~~~~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. ~~~~~

Posted in Back Pain, Chronic Pain, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, CRPS, Failed back surgery, intractable pain, Ketamine, Medications, Neuropathy, Pain Management, medicine, Radiculopathy, RSD, Sciatica Tagged: CRPS, Failed back surgery, intractable pain, Ketamine, Neuropathy, RSD, Sciatica ]]> http://painsandiego.com/2009/05/26/ketamine/feed/ 0 painsandiego cancer Yellow rose blue hibiscus http://painsandiego.com/2009/05/26/low-dose-naltrexone-ldn/ http://painsandiego.com/2009/05/26/low-dose-naltrexone-ldn/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 02:45:53 +0000 Nancy Sajben MD http://painsandiego.com/?p=1233 ]]> ·

Low Dose Naltrexone

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Low dose naltrexone, or LDN, has been prescribed “off label” for persons with many conditions including intractable pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, RSD, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons Disease, IBS, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases and Crohn’s Disease to mention only a few. Low dose naltrexone is not a cure but may be potentially helpful for selected persons with these conditions. It appears to have little or no toxicity at this low dose – a few persons report transient insomnia, nausea or vivid dreams.

Naltrexone and and naloxone are both classified as morphinans, meaning morphine-like. The action of the morphinans and dextromethorphan is on the glia. This discussion relates to those medications. Refer to the paper titled Morphinan Neuroprotection by Zhang, below.

How does it work?

Naltrexone and dextromethorphan are anti-inflammatory. They act centrally and are very different from, and without the toxicity of commonly used anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen or steroids.

They inhibit Superoxide, a free radical, and reduce the toxicity of peroxynitrate metabolism and the excitotoxic effects of glutamate. The mechanism of action occurs at the microglia in spinal cord and brain where they are neuroprotective. Microglia are the immune cells of the central nervous system. Microglia are not only the hallmark of pathology in Multiple Sclerosis but they also play a major role in pain and other degenerative neurological conditions. Reducing the damaging effect of these potent neurotoxins improves function of the immune system and various organ tissues including the spinal cord and brain.

There is evidence that they also increase the release of neurotrophic factors BDNF and GDNF (Jau-Shyong Hong, PhD, at the NIEH/NIH,personal communication).

Chronic pain alters central processing by changing the neurochemistry and the anatomy. This can lead to premature aging of the brain with loss of gray matter and brain atrophy as reported on MRI’s of persons with chronic low back pain. This may also occur in other stress-related disorders, such as chronic depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

There has been a blossoming of basic neuroscience research on microglia that began in the 1980′s. At the American Pain Society meetings in San Diego in May 2009, there were hours of lectures for several days on the basic science of microglia and pain mechanisms.  This confirms the experience that I have seen clinically.

I am gratefulto have the guidance of patients, physicians, and scientists in learning about the use and mechanisms of low dose naltrexone, with special thanks to Dr. Jau-Shyong Hong, PhD, Chief of Neuropharmacology at NIEH/NIH. He is one of the country’s leading experts on microglia, opioid antagonists and morphinans and has published some of the references below.

New science shows naltrexone to be a potent anti-inflammatory — much stronger and with a much different mechanism than the weaker cox inhibitors such as ibuprofen, Vioxx, Celebrex, Naproxen with none of those adverse side effects. Dr. Hong reports that in animal studies, dextromethorphan is even stronger than naltrexone.

Naltrexone is one of a few compounds called morphinans, meaning it has a structure similar to morphine, but naltrexone blocks morphine-like medication:  it is an antagonist.  For detailed discussion of morphinans refer to the article by Zhang et al, listed below.

There are links to further understand the basic science in medical publications and references below. We all owe thanks to patients whose clinical recovery with the use of low dose naltrexone has kept this work alive since its effect on the immune system in Multiple Sclerosis and HIV/AIDS was discovered by Bernard Bihari, MD, in 1984. He was a Harvard trained academic neurologist based in NYC. Their testimony can be found in the book mentioned below or in many web sources. The excitement of their recovery and their fundraising prompted UCSF and Stanford to begin double blind studies now 25 years later.

Recent clinical research

In 2009, Drs. Younger and Mackey of Stanford Pain Center reported a double blind study of low dose naltrexone in persons who had fibromyalgia more than 10 years and showed 30% improvement in pain and fatigue. They now plan a larger study. Bruce Cree, MD, of the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Clinic in 2008 reported improvement usinglow dose naltrexone in a masked placebo controlled study to evaluate quality of life in MS [reference below] testing only pain, cognitive function and mental health. They propose doing a larger study to measure other functions in MS. In the 2007 study by Jill Smith, MD, at Hershey Medical Center [reference below], 67% of persons with Crohn’s Disease achieved remission in a few weeks, and total 89% had a response to therapy. As described in their publication: “Endogenous opioids and opioid antagonists have been shown to play a role in healing and repair of tissues.”Dr. Smith has received a $500,000 grant from NIH to continue research on low dose naltrexone for Crohn’s Disease.

Multicenter studies on LDN for persons with Multiple Sclerosis have been done in Italy and Scotland.  New research is starting in Scotland that will include study of the toxicity of peroxynitrate metabolism in MS first proposed by a Nobel winning scientist in 1991, see the reference on peroxynitrate metabolism and Dr. Gilhooly’s references, below.  Scotland has the highest incidence of MS in the world, even higher than Great Britain and Ireland.  Dr. Gilhooly’s patients reported remarkable improvement in function on LDN that led to him starting this work.

My experience prescribing LDN

I have been prescribing naltrexone for 6 years in ultra-low microgram doses, and more recently prescribing low dose naltrexone at doses of 1 to 4.5 mg.  It is one of the most exciting developments in pain medicine and neurodegenerative diseases that I have ever seen.  It was previously unimaginable to me to see some persons with intractable pain now pain free and off opioids because of low dose naltrexone or a similar medication that will soon be posted on this weblog.

I have not yet been able to predict who will respond to low dose naltrexone with decrease in symptoms, but many patients have had profound relief. Often it may reduce intractable pain to zero despite failing to respond for many years to all known therapies. Inability to predict a response to pain is true of many classes of medication that we trial “off label” for pain relief and even those that are FDA approved for pain. Paradoxically, the same is true for morphine and similar strong opioids.  In fact, opioids relieve pain and opioids create pain at the same time, and it is not uncommon for pain specialists to see individuals with severe pain despite using high dose opioids.

“Off label” use means it is not FDA approved for these purposes.  Instead, low dose naltrexone is used in small doses of 1 to 4.5 mg at bedtime that must be made by a compounding pharmacist, rather than the 50 mg tablets or higher doses that are FDA approved for prevention of addiction and alcoholism.

Many thanks to the sponsors and speakers of the Fourth Annual Conference on Low Dose Naltrexone which was held for the first time on the West Coast at USC on October 8, 2008 – they have provided other references attached below.

Naltrexone became available as a generic drug many years after 1984, and thus there is no profit in this use for pharmaceutical companies.  Only recently, has the science progressed enough to understand its new uses.  Therefore what you may read in various sources on the web may be the “old science,” whereas the articles below are the “new science.”

I will be updating this page in the near future but wanted to make these recent publications and documents available now.

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Update June 22, 2010: Check back for patient case reports I will be publishing soon now that I have more specific information on how morphinans work on path pathways and on the central nervous system.

I recommend this book:

The Promise of Low Dose Naltrexone Therapy

by Elaine A. Moore & Samantha Wilkinson, McFarland & Company Inc., 2009

“Grounded in clinical and scientific research, this book describes the history of naltrexone, its potential therapeutic uses, its effects on the immune system, its pharmacological properties, and how the drug is administered. It also lists … patient resources, and includes interviews with LDN patients and researchers.”

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If you are unable to view and print PDF files below,

download the free PDF reader.

If you do not have Microsoft Powerpoint software to view slides,

download the free Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer.

Download sizes are in parentheses to the right of each download link.

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Morphinan Neuroprotection by Zhang, Hong, Kim, et al, Crit.Rev.Neurobiol. 16(4):271-302, 2004 (PDF)  450k

Microglia Mediated Neurotoxicity Molecular Mechanisms. Block Zecca Hong, Nature Reviews Neurosci 8:57, 2007 (PDF) 529k

Peroxynitrites in MS,  Dr Tom Gilhooly, Scotland, USC 4th Annual LDN Conference 2008 (PDF)  77k

LDN research on MS in Scotland Dr Tom Gilhooly, USC 4th Annual LDN Conference, 2008 (Powerpoint)  12M

LDN In MS, Bruce Cree MD, UCSF Poster, 2008 (PDF)  154k

A Pilot Trial of LDN in Primary Progressive MS, Gironi et al, Multiple Sclerosis 14:1076–1083, 2008 (PDF)  222k

LDN for Treatment of MS – Clinical Trials Are Needed, Patel, Ann Pharmacotherapy 41 (9):1549, 2007 (PDF)  114k

LDN Improves Active Crohns Disease, Jill Smith MD et al, Am J Gastroenterology 2007 (PDF) 121k

LDN Immune System Autism & HIV, Vojdani, USC 4th Annual LDN Conference, 2008(Powerpoint)  5.7M

LDN Immune System Autism & HIV, Vojdani Part 2, USC 4th Annual Conference, 2008 (Powerpoint)  3.6M

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Update December 10, 2010:  For further research publications on glia, please refer here.

Refer here for a case report of severe RSD responding primarily to naltrexone.

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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!

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