Friday, August 12, 2011

GUIDELINE FOR DIABETIC NEUROPATHY

Diabetic neuropathy, also called nerve pain, is a condition resulting from nerve damage caused by high blood sugar levels associated with diabetes. The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has created a guideline for treatment and it has recently reviewed 79 available scientific studies on therapies for diabetic neuropathy over a four year period. While it is universally known that exercise is always considered a key step in the right direction in combating diabetes, the seizure medication pregabalin was found to have strong evidence of effectiveness in this study. Only one non-pharmaceutical therapy, transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) – a portable device that sends an electric current to electrodes attached to the skin – was shown to have moderate evidence supporting its effectiveness.