Found a peer reviewed journal article some may find of interest. "Complex regional pain syndromes: new pathophysiological concepts and therapies", published by European Journal of Neurology this year. It's a review article which summarizes the current state of medical knowledge (I heard those snickers ). To me, the info of biggest interest is the summary of drug and non-drug treatment strategies (begins pg 6 heading: Therapeutic concepts).

The paper provides correct terminology and references so we can more easily find detail information on specific topics of interest. PLUS we can give hardcopies of journal articles to our doctors to educate them in their own language.

Unfortunately, the PDF exceeds the upload limit and I'm not allowed to post URLs yet. *edit*

Regards,
Rochelle

PS. Here is the article abstract:
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), formerly known as Sudeck`s dystrophy and causalgia, is a disabling and distressing pain syndrome. We here provide a review based on the current literature concerning the epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapy of CRPS. CRPS may develop following fractures, limb trauma or lesions of the peripheral or CNS. The clinical picture comprises a characteristic
clinical triad of symptoms including autonomic (disturbances of skin temperature, color, presence of sweating abnormalities), sensory (pain and hyperalgesia), and motor (paresis, tremor, dystonia) disturbances. Diagnosis is mainly based on clinical signs. Several pathophysiological concepts have been proposed to explain the complex symptoms of CRPS: (i) facilitated neurogenic inflammation; (ii) pathological sympatho-afferent coupling; and (iii) neuroplastic changes within the CNS. Furthermore, there is accumulating evidence that genetic factors may predispose for CRPS. Therapy is based on a multidisciplinary approach. Non-pharmacological approaches include physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Pharmacotherapy is based on individual symptoms and includes steroids, free radical scavengers, treatment of neuropathic pain, and finally agents interfering with bone metabolism (calcitonin, biphosphonates). Invasive therapeutic concepts include implantation of spinal cord stimulators. This review covers new aspects of pathophysiology and therapy of CRPS.

wow! thanks. this is awesome.

Hi wanntoBpainFREE

I was wondering if you could PM me the link about the article on CRPS that you talk about. I am very interested in reading any info about this ever since I was DX with this a few years ago after asking my old Dr. what was wrong with me for almost 2 years. Both my new Hand and PM Dr.s told me to read everything that I can get my hands on about this nightmare of a disease.

Thank You
on
Dennis

Just google ""Complex regional pain syndromes: new pathophysiological concepts and therapies", published by European Journal of Neurology" ... that's what I did, and the first link is a PDF of the report. Hope this helps!

Why don't you send the link to one of the Moderators and they will put it on for you? Chemar is good for helping with these.

I would say send it to me but I would most likely delete their page. LOL

Welcome to the family.

Ada

Copy and paste: "Complex regional pain syndromes: new pathophysiological concepts and therapies" into google and a pdf of the article will be in the search results.

This is a non-pdf format link:
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...6VZF8DskC-dtnA

Some PDFs do not have proper addresses on them anymore.
And some don't play right-- I can't get many to load for me.

So this is a quick view link.

This article is pretty recent too, from March 2010, on Medscape under emergency medicine and neurology:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/articl...inicalPhysical
It's pretty in-depth.

The one that pacugirl posted mentions that a predisposing personality is one of the causes of RSD. My question would be, what personality do we all have in common that we would end up with RSDS. Interesting. I do know one thing we have talked about is Type A people get it. Is this the predisposing personality that they refer to?

I really have trouble with some of the info coming out in these articles. I know others do too that have dealt with it long enough that they know more about it. By having it, we seem to learn more about it then Drs. and researchers.

Ada

You're right Ada.
I know I'm a type A, but then again I'm a a nurse, and a mom and a woman -so I'm used to doing 10 things at once-it's survival! lol :-P
If they mean any other type of personality I might take offense. I mean -isn't that an opinion rather than science, when you start talking about personalities?