痛みと緩和のジャーナル

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Neural Therapy: An Overlooked Game Changer for Patients Suffering Chronic Pain?

Brobyn TL, Chung MK and LaRiccia PJ*

Today the vast majority of medical treatments are for diseases of a chronic nature, in particular chronic pain. The treatment of chronic pain is costly not only in the United States but countries around the world adding up to billions of dollars for treatment costs as well as disability costs. There is an urgent need at this time to explore effective alternative treatments for chronic pain. A relatively unknown technique initially developed in Germany during the early 1900’s known as Neural Therapy (NT) is emerging as a simple and effective treatment for chronic pain. NT is now gradually being adopted by medical communities throughout the world with cases being described which report many remarkable results. Neural Therapy technique primarily involves the injection of local anesthetic into scars, trigger points, tendon and ligament insertions, peripheral nerves, autonomic ganglia, epidural space and tissues. The mechanism of action calls upon the concept whereby each cell within the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is controlled via ubiquitous synapses occurring within the intracellular fluid (also known as the “matrix”). Chronic pain results from long-term disruption/ irritation of this complex system. NT generally uses non-anesthetic properties of local anesthetics to re-establish homeostasis throughout the autonomic nervous system. NT in its simplest form is intradermal injection of those scars, tattoos, or piercings which are believed to be causing an interference field or disruption of the autonomic nervous system. The local anesthetic is injected in such a way as to produce a linear wheal over the interference field of approx. 0.7 cc of solution per cm of scar. The location of the interference field can be in the vicinity of the patient’s pain or in an entirely different location and the therapeutic benefits range from gradual improvement after repeated treatments versus immediate complete relief of symptoms. Our center has witnessed numerous cases where this technique has led to dramatic improvement and often complete cure of a patient’s long term pain.