Antiviral drugs may help shingles pain

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Both intravenous and oral antiviral medication can improve the nerve pain that comes with shingles.
The chickenpox virus can lie dormant in the body for many years and then become re-activated to cause an attack of shingles. The virus causes a rash and nerve pain which may persist for a very long time.

A team at the University of Colorado has been looking at the impact of antiviral therapy on shingles pain on a group of 15 patients with moderate to severe nerve pain following shingles. They received intravenous acyclovir for 14 days, then oral acyclovir every day for one month. Eight of them reported significant reduction in pain after the end of therapy. In general, the therapy was well tolerated although five patients dropped out of the study early. This was just a small study, but the results look promising for the relief of shingles-related nerve pain.

Source
Archives of Neurology online 8th May 2006

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