REVIEW - Update on medication-induced peripheral neuropathy

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Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2009 Jan;9(1):69-75.

Update on medication-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Weimer LH, Sachdev N.

The Neurological Institute, 710 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA.

Despite improvements in the identification of causes of peripheral

neuropathy, idiopathic polyneuropathy remains common. Medication and

toxic neuropathy account for a small but important percentage of

potentially preventable or reversible causes of neuropathy. New drugs

that can induce neuropathy have been approved over the past several

years, including the anticancer agents bortezomib, ixabepilone, and

oxaliplatin. We review the neurotoxic effects of tumor necrosis

factor-alpha blockers infliximab and etanercept, the inflammatory

arthritis agent leflunomide, and the antibiotic linezolid. The

controversy of statin-induced neuropathy continues to unfold; the

large Fremantle Diabetes Study has suggested that statins may have

neuroprotective effects. Dichloroacetate is a promising agent for

lactic acidosis-associated disorders, but toxic neuropathy is a

treatment-limiting factor. We also describe a progressive inflammatory

neuropathy in swine slaughterhouse workers that appears to be a

toxin-induced immune response.

PMID: 19080756

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19080756

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