Management of Painful Peripheral Diabetic Neuropathy

摘要

Diabetes Mellitus is an endocrine disorder which causes metabolic disturbance producing a state of hyperglycaemia. Hyperglycaemia adversely affects cardiovascular, renal, nervous and visual systems. The importance of good glycaemic control in these patients has been emphasised in literature to reduce the end organ damage. Diabetes can cause autonomic and peripheral neuropathy. The autonomic neuropathy can affect the cardiovascular, genitourinary and gastrointestinal systems. Peripheral neuropathy can cause acute and chronic sensorimotor neuropathy, which can cause significant morbidity in these patients affecting their daily activities and quality of life. It can be challenging to treat them because the pain can be resistant to the medication and the effective medication can be associated with adverse effects which the patients may find difficult to tolerate. It is very important to increase the dose of the drugs to their highest effective dose (within the therapeutic range of that drug) for each patient with a balance of the side effects caused by that drug in that patient. These patients often need more than one drug to provide adequate pain relief. There are guidelines and recommendations available to help the clinicians to use appropriate combination of available treatment options.