ACUPUNCTURE AND NEUROPATHIC PAIN About neuropathic pain

Neuropathic pain results from damage to, or dysfunction of, the system that normally signals pain. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP 2007) defines neuropathic pain as follows: ‘Pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system. Peripheral neuropathic pain occurs when the lesion or dysfunction affects the peripheral nervous system. Central pain may be retained as the term for when the lesion or dysfunction affects the central nervous system’. A review of the epidemiology of chronic pain found that there is still no accurate estimate available for the population prevalence of neuropathic pain.(Smith and Torrance 2010)