Nerve pain

Nerve pain is pain caused by damage or dysfunction of the nerves themselves rather than by injury to the tissue they serve.

It is typically described as burning, shooting, stabbing or electric, sometimes with tingling, numbness or heightened sensitivity to light touch. Common sources include diabetic neuropathy, shingles, sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, chemotherapy and nerve injury after surgery. In medical language the same phenomenon is called neuropathic pain, and it is distinguished from nociceptive pain, which arises from injured tissue signaling through healthy nerves.

Assessment includes a description of the pain quality, mapping of the affected area, sensory testing and, when needed, nerve conduction studies or imaging to locate the problem. Screening questionnaires help clinicians separate nerve pain from other pain types. Cannabinoids have been studied for neuropathic pain in a number of trials, with modest and inconsistent findings, and there is no approved use.