Airing Pain 46: Post-Herpetic Neuralgia and Migraine

Bust­ing some myths about shin­gles and post-her­pet­ic neu­ral­gia, and the dos and don’ts of man­ag­ing migraines

This pro­gramme was fund­ed by the Scot­tish Government.

Migraine is not ‘just a headache’ – it’s a dis­abling con­di­tion that can cause major dis­rup­tion to work and per­son­al life. So says David Wat­son, a GP who spe­cialis­es in treat­ing patients with chron­ic headaches. He explains that the ‘migraine brain’ is extra sen­si­tive to changes in the envi­ron­ment, how small changes to lifestyle can help peo­ple to min­imise episodes and how to avoid the pit­fall of med­ica­tion overuse. Dr Wat­son also gives help­ful advice on how patients with migraine can best pre­pare for a vis­it to their GP.

Post-her­pet­ic neu­ral­gia is anoth­er fre­quent­ly mis­un­der­stood con­di­tion with myths about its con­ta­gious­ness and rela­tion­ship to chick­en­pox and shin­gles caus­ing con­fu­sion. Mar­i­an Nichol­son of the Shin­gles Sup­port Soci­ety clears up these mis­un­der­stand­ings and empha­sis­es the impor­tance of pre­ven­ta­tive treat­ments. We also hear about a new vac­cine which should help to pro­tect old­er peo­ple who are most at risk of devel­op­ing post-her­pet­ic neu­ral­gia after shingles.

Issues cov­ered in this pro­gramme include: Post-her­pet­ic neu­ral­gia, migraine, headaches, hyper­sen­si­tiv­i­ty, lifestyle, mis­con­cep­tions, pre­ven­ta­tive treat­ment, vac­cine, shin­gles, elder­ly peo­ple, trig­gers, burn­ing sen­sa­tion, chick­en­pox virus, drugs, med­ica­tion, painkillers, antivi­ral med­i­cine, nerve pain, tri­cyclic anti­de­pres­sant and antiepileptics.

Con­trib­u­tors:

• David Wat­son, Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­er, Aberdeen and Chair of the SIGN Guide­line on Headache
• Mar­i­an Nichol­son, Direc­tor of the Shin­gles Sup­port Society.