What is Trigeminal Neuralgia?
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN or TGN), also known as Tic douloureux, is a chronic pain disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve producing episodes of severe, sudden, shock-like pain in one side of the face that lasts for a few seconds to a few minutes. Groups of these episodes can occur over a few hours. Episodes may be triggered by touching a trigger point on the face, or by activity or movement such as chewing or brushing the teeth. It is one of the most painful conditions, and can result in depression or suicidal thoughts.
What causes Trigeminal Neuralgia?
The exact cause is unclear, but believed to involve loss of the myelin around the trigeminal nerve. This may occur due to compression from a blood vessel as the nerve exits the brain stem, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or trauma. Less common causes include a tumor or arteriovenous malformation. Diagnosis is typically based on the symptoms, after ruling out other possible causes such as post-herpetic neuralgia.
It is estimated that 1 in 8,000 people per year develop trigeminal neuralgia. It usually begins in people over 50 years old, but can occur at any age. Women are more commonly affected than men. Allopathic treatment includes medication or surgery.
How homeopathy can help:
Homeopathy recognizes that each person with this condition may experience it differently and the homeopath chooses a remedy that matches that person’s symptom picture of the dis-ease. Examples of this would be things such as the following:
· Does it occur on the right or left side?
· Is it better or worse from heat or cold?
· Is it better or worse in the morning or at night? Or do the attacks come on at a specific time?
· Is there any sensation that precedes the attack (such as itching) or remains after (such as burning)?
· Is there redness of the face, or tearing of the eye?
As with any condition, homeopathy treats the person not the disease and the goal is always permanent restoration of health and not just relief of symptoms.
Research:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17437933
Homeopathy. 2007 Apr;96(2):82-6.
Individualized homeopathic treatment of trigeminal neuralgia: an observational study.
Mojaver YN1, Mosavi F, Mazaherinezhad A, Shahrdar A, Manshaee K.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate individualized classical homeopathy in the treatment of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN) METHOD: 15 patients with physician-confirmed trigeminal neuralgia were treated with homeopathy. Patients received individualized homeopathic medicines as oral liquid 30C once per month and were followed-up at the end of first, second, third and fourth month. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used for the evaluation of pain intensity and descriptive criteria were used for evaluation of attack frequency.
RESULT:
All 15 patients completed treatment. The results for both the reduction of pain intensity and attack frequency were statistically significant (P<0.001) during the four-month evaluation. We observed overall reductions of more than 60% in pain intensity using homeopathic treatment.
CONCLUSION:
The results suggest that homeopathic treatment is an effective and safe method in the treatment of ITN.
