Treatment of neuropathic pain: historical aspects.

S the earliest descriptions of pain related to injury of the nervous system, it has been recognized that the characteristics of this type of pain differ markedly from those of pain due to nonneural tissue damage. Later, as new analgesics were developed, it became clear that neurogenic pain was very often refractory to these drugs. This brief article considers some historical aspects of the development of treatments for neuropathic pain. All pain clinicians would accept that the current armamentarium of therapies for neuropathic pain is limited, a fact that reflects our poor understanding of the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain and inability to target treatments specifically and selectively. Closely related to this is the continuing debate over exactly what we mean when we use the term neuropathic pain.