I'm sort of using something I once posted on another board about this subject. I have very definite opinions on this, but please remember that they are just that: opinions. Also please remember that any...anger in this post comes from being treated very badly for many years as a child with RSD.


RSD and RND are essentially the same thing. One is not a pediatric form of another, they are just two different names for one disease (and there are a lot of other names too). RND is a term commonly used by a certain set of pediatric doctors who believe in a certain set of practices to treat whatever you want to call this stupid disease.

These doctors treat whatever-they-call-it with intensive physical therapy, and sometimes the very basic combination of Neurontin and Elavil. And they often get very good results with this treatment. Because although their theories are, in my opinion, ridiculous, the treatment is very basic, conservative and works in a great deal of pediatric patients.

Why is this a pediatric thing? Where did these theories come from? It comes from the fact that children often recover more readily from RSD, without invasive procedures. However, that doesn't make it a different disease. It's to be expected. Neuroplasticity (the ability of the nervous system to rerout and "fix" itself) lasts well into the 20s. Adults don't have as much of that advantage, and more steps must often be taken to retrain the nervous system.

My problem with all of this? I don't want to name names of doctors who have definitely helped some people, but some of them have published articles and whatnot solely blaming psychological factors for the development of RSD (or RND).


As somebody who developed RSD at the age of 12, I have a very emotional response to theories like this one. 13 years later, I still find that when confronted with certain types of opinions, I get very frustrated and angry. I'm sorry if my hostility has injected itself into this explanation.

All of this, in my opinion, doesn't make RND an illegitimate term for this disease. Really, I think it's a better name than CRPS. RND, standing for reflex neurovascular dystrophy, at least takes into account that there are vascular problems seen in RSD or RND, without assuming dysfunction of the sympathetic nervous system to be the direct cause.

-Betsy