Neuralgia
Neuralgia is pain following the course of a nerve, often severe and described as stabbing or like an electric shock, or burning in nature. It may result from previous inflammation or injury to the nerve: it is, for example, a common feature of shingles, when it is called post herpetic neuralgia or zoster associated pain (ZAP) - which may need treatment with small doses of anti-depressants, or antiepileptic agents, as well as pain killers. Early treatment of the attack of shingles (see the skin disorders section) may be helpful to prevent this. Trigeminal neuralgia, called by the French tic doloreux, is pain affecting the trigeminal nerve - the 5th cranial nerve which supplies sensation to the face. The pain is intense, searing and severe, usually affecting the chin or cheek on one side of the face and often precipitated by a touching another part of the face - producing what appears to be a reflex discharge in the nerve (a man with this condition may, for example, leave that particular part of the face unshaven). The agony makes the sufferer screw up their face (a tic is the French word meaning spasmodic movement) because of the pain (and so doloreux, or painful). In severe cases it may be necessary to use surgery to divide the nerve, as it may in all persistent cases of neuralgia.
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