Silent epidemic

A breakthrough discovery could lessen the ordeals of almost eight million people in Britain who suffer chronic neuropathic pain. 

Scientists have isolated a molecule that could be a trigger for the debilitating “silent epidemic”.

Neuropathic pain, caused by nerve damage, affects people with a wide range of conditions including cancer, arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. It also hits chemotherapy patients. It can affect any part of the body but back, joints and the head are the most common sources.

The root cause has been difficult to identify but research now points to a small molecular by-product of cellular membranes in the nervous system, which is produced at high levels. Gary Patti, a research associate at Scripps Research and assistant professor of genetics, chemistry and medicine at Washington University in the US, said: “We think this is a big step forward in understanding and treating neuropathic pain.” His findings, reported in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, suggest that controlling the molecule could switch off or reduce the pain for sufferers.

The research, still at laboratory stage, discovered that the pain-inducing molecule is generated during cell changes in the body due to nerve damage. He said: “It is encouraging to see positive research that could in the future bring relief to those struck down by neuropathic pain.

“Such innovation is critical to developing drugs or other interventions that have the ability to either relieve or indeed prevent neuropathic pain.

“While it would be unwise to build up expectations among people who suffer with neuropathic pain, the prospects for those in the future could be considerably different.”

A shock report from Action On Pain and Arthritis Care earlier this month branded Britain with one of the worst records in Europe for dealing with chronic pain, defined as pain lasting more than three months. Short-term pain is known as acute pain. The report found that 45 per cent of UK sufferers did not have access to adequate pain management, compared with 19 per cent in Germany.

Chronic pain can lead to depression, poor sleep and general lack of fitness. Around 22 per cent of sufferers become depressed and 25 per cent go on to lose their jobs.
More people suffer from long-term pain than from heart disease and diabetes combined.

Yet in most of Britain, it is not recognised as a medical condition and there is no real strategy for dealing with this “silent epidemic”.