What Pain Medication To Take For Shingles

When the rash goes away the pain usually goes.

What pain medication to take for shingles. Shingles itself comes from reactivation of a chickenpox virus varicella zoster. Shingles causes a painful rash itching and burning skin and lasts for 3 to 5 weeks in most cases. Find a list of current medications their possible side effects dosage and efficacy when used to treat or reduce the symptoms of shingles. Learn about treatment options from a pain management specialist.

If you have shingles symptoms get treatment now and you may avoid permanent nerve pain. There aren t home remedies for shingles. These may also help you stave off postherpetic neuralgia. But there are things you can do to help your skin heal.

Shingles can appear many years after the initial chickenpox infection. The pain of shingles is for many people quite striking in its severity. Shingles a viral infection of the nerve roots affects 1 million people in the u s each year. Shingles also known as herpes zoster results from a reactivation of infection with the varicella zoster virus that causes chickenpox anyone who has had chickenpox may develop shingles later in life although it is most common in older people.

It s caused by nerve injury at the. Your doctor can suggest over the counter medicines to relieve milder discomfort. Roughly 30 to 60 of people over age 60 who get shingles go on to develop a chronic pain syndrome called post herpetic neuralgia. Shingles is usually diagnosed based on the history of pain on one side of your body along with the telltale rash and blisters.

The virus travels down nerve fibers to cause a painful skin rash. Your doctor may also take a tissue scraping or culture of the blisters for examination in the laboratory. The most common complication of shingles is postherpetic neuropathy phn when this happens feelings of pain remain long after the blisters have cleared up. Shingles causes inflammation and pain.