Dear Abbie,

I'm sorry to hear about the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy... i just googled it to see what i could find medication-wise. Found a NINDS site info sheet on it - they call it CPRS - Complex regional pain syndrome. anyway it sounds just horrible. that and bipolar too. my stomach sank down into my shoes. it does state that no single medication has been found to relieve the condition but says that lots of drugs are used symptomatically... not just opiates or steroids either.

Notably i see that AEDs are mentioned and i am aware of some, including new ones, which may help with pain control. I am thinking gabapentin but more specifically its newer cousin - pregabalin. Also tricyclic ADs like amitriptyline or nortriptyline could help. the latter is often used for fibro. Amitriptyline howver is unique in pain treatment, in that it has been found, even in low doses, to help with pain of diverse origin... even psychogenic pain (i am not suggesting that yours is) but it seems to be a particularly interesting drug insofar as pain control. This i was told by my pdoc - i am not in the US.

I just thought i'd toss a few non-opiate names at you... of course i don't know what you've already tried... but anyway...

There are many meds out there. i hope your new pdoc will find something that works for you. i really hope this new pdoc is the genius kind!

let us know how things go.

~ waves ~