New drug to manage resistant chronic pain (neuropathic pain) article

[JandS]

As a lurker on these forums for a few weeks (researching info about scleral lenses for vision issues, not DE treatment), and an early-1970's hard contact lens wearer who remembers the agonies all too well, I thought that the following might be of interest to the forum members.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-0...onic-pain.html

Neuropathic pain, caused by nerve or tissue damage, is the culprit behind many cases of chronic pain. ... Typically resistant to common types of pain management including ibuprofen and even morphine, neuropathic pain can lead to lifelong disability for many sufferers.

Now a drug developed by Tel Aviv University researchers, known as BL-7050, is offering new hope to patients with neuropathic pain. ... the medication inhibits the transmission of pain signals throughout the body. ....

With few treatment options available for neuropathic pain, Prof. Attali set out to develop a medication that could bind to and stabilize the body's potassium channels, controlling their hyper-excitability and preventing the occurrence of pain by keeping the channels open for the outflow of potassium.

From other googling it appears that low potassium levels have been connected to dry eye, so it would seem (to me) that this drug might be suitable for treating DE pain, maybe like a sort of "cheshire cat grin", the immediate cause might be gone but the pain lingers on.

[jenny2008]

this is interesting..thanks for posting this!