Risk factors for prolonged shingles pain identified

May 23, 2004

Last Updated: 2004-05-21 16:30:26 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - US researchers have identified several

factors that are associated with prolonged pain after shingles. These

factors include the presence of early warning symptoms, such as tingling

sensations, and severe pain when the shingles begins.

Shingles is a painful rash caused by re-activation in nerve tissue of

chickenpox virus acquired earlier in life. A drug called acyclovir can

help control the rash, but the disease usually resolves on its own after

a few weeks. However, it is not uncommon for the pain to persist after

the rash is gone.

As reported in the medical journal Neurology, Dr. H. Dworkin,

from the University of Rochester in New York, and colleagues looked for

risk factors by analyzing data from 965 shingles patients who were

enrolled in drug trials. All of the patients were enrolled within 72

hours after the rash began.

Older age, female sex, greater rash severity, severe pain when shingles

began, and the presence of early warning symptoms were identified as

risk factors for prolonged pain after shingles, the investigators note.

The presence of early warning symptoms was present in 94 percent of

patients with prolonged pain.

" In future research, it will be important to examine whether additional

risk factors...and various methods of weighting risk factors can

increase the accuracy of this prediction, " the authors state.

SOURCE: Neurology, May 2004.

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

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