Effect of Alpha Lipoic Acid in the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis-Induced Neuropathic Pain: A Case Report
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) resulting in motor, sensory, and cognitive impairment. MS symptoms greatly affect the quality of life of patients with one of the most common symptom being pain. Neuropathic pain (NP) that develops secondary to demyelination, neuro-inflammation, and axonal damage in the CNS is the most distressing and difficult type of pain to treat in patients with MS. A patient with MS presented to our department with dysesthetic extremity pain that was characterized by burning and tingling predominantly in both feet and was worse at night. She was evaluated and diagnosed with MS-induced NP and treated with alpha lipoic acid (ALA) because of unresponsiveness and intolerance to amitriptyline, pregabalin, and gabapentin treatments. In this report, we present and discuss the ALA treatment in a patient with MS-induced NP.
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