Neuron memory key to taming chronic pain
 

Anyone see this article for those suffering from allodinya.

http://www.mcgill.ca/research/channels/news/214078

Yes--
 

--it's been posited for a while now that trophic changes to neurons that are constantly being signaled to produce pain sensations may change chemically in a way that makes them easier to excite than previously, and then they may signal pain whereas before an equal stimulus would not cause them to fire in that way. In other words, these neurons become "conditioned" to fire to lower levels of stimulus, which would normally not be perceived as painful at all.

On the sensory level, neurologists refer to this as allodynia--sensations of pain from normally non-painful stimuli.

A number of the anti-epileptics--gabapentin (Neurontin) and pregabalin (Lyrica) specifically--are thought to work by upregulating the action of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, so that these nerve do not fire as such low stimulus levels.

It would be a great thing, though, if research provides us with a way to "re-train" such overly excitable neurons.

I can tell you Lyrica, Gabepentin do nothing for my allodynia.

I will be looking to try Namenda and Nuebexta next.

bent - I started on Namenda late last summer and saw an immediate improvement. It helped with the severity, duration, and recovery of my pain. No other meds has managed to effect all three. Ironically, as it is a cognitive function medication it helps reverse some of the memory impairment damage :rolleyes: all the other do!

Can you tell me what dosage you are on and what type of pain it help you with?

That is what ketamine was supposed to help with the brain and reseting it so to speak.
I have tried many meds like neurontin and though I thought they were not helping they may have but it just seemed not enough. Sometimes it is hard to know. I have never heard Namenda I am going to look that up. Glad it is helping

Namenda has had a colorful past. It was used in Europe for nerve pain, but when it got to OUR FDA, it was only approved for Alzheimer's treatment.

We used to discuss it back when at our old home at BT.

I believe some posters on RSD forum here use it, or have used it.
So do a search there for the posts.

I get 37 posts with that keyword Namenda:
example:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...hlight=Namenda

I cannot post the search string, as it expires on the boards. You have to do that yourself, I'm afraid.

The generic name is memantine... searches are fewer for that version here. But if you decide to search Google or PubMed especially use memantine. You get better hits on PubMed using the generic names for drugs.

I have done research on it and its a mixed bag. Some get good response and some not. You can say that for any drug and since everyone symptoms and causes are different the only thing you can do is try it for yourself.

The only thing I have noticed with Namenda is that I've seen people go up to 55mg which the normal most docs give is 20mg.

:rolleyes: haha - I should have typed "it has helped with my Allodynia pain!" :o But of course I forgot - I guess they need to up my dose! :p I am only on 10mg 2x a day. But before I started taking the Alladynia once the pain started it would not back down and I would be miserable and hit 9/10 pain levels every night for hours. Now if I become active and my pain begins to rise if I sit down and rest the Allodynia pain levels will recede and I can begin again. All of it cannot be just contributed to just the Namenda because I had had some Ketamine before the Namenda - But the largest part is due to the Namenda by far.

thank you for the update. One last question. How long were you on the med to notice a difference?