I was offered this by my ORTHOPEDIST. I have edema, evidently from the neuropathy, and it would go up my lower leg and surround the knee, and I thought I had problems with the knee itself that was causing the swelling. I had gone to the neurologist, and he gave me the nerve conduction study, but didn't make any recommendations, he let my primary doctor do that. When I mentioned that I had PN to the orthopedist, he prescribed tramadol without telling me why. Then I found out that it was used for PN when I asked my primary doctor about it. All the primary had given me was hyrdrocodone, which didn't work nearly as good as this stuff seems to. You might want to try the tramadol, I think it supposedly does a better job of blocking the specific nerve pain than regular opiates. That is, of course, if it will work for your case. It's easy on my stomach, and doesn't have a lot of side effects.