Word: douloureux
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...treatment can be repeated if pain recurs. Other neurosurgical procedures involve cutting the roots of nerves at the spine to relieve cancer pain in the lower end of the backbone, and cutting or chemically killing the trigeminal nerve in the face to halt the agonizing stabs of tic douloureux, the most agonizing form of neuralgia...
Many neurosurgeons would stay the knife if they could, and are joining with pharmacologists to develop better ways of relieving pain with drugs. As many as 65% of tic douloureux victims can be treated effectively, says Crue, with drugs originally designed to control epileptic seizures. For the relief of severe pain of virtually every kind, morphine and its synthetic analogues remain the most potent drugs known,* but all are highly addicting and need to be taken in stepped-up doses to maintain a constant level of analgesia. Supposedly nonaddicting substitutes are exultantly reported almost every year by research chemists...
...patients were victims of an excruciating form of facial neuralgia known as tic douloureux, which often seems doubly painful because the victims know there is no sure relief. Drug after touted drug and a succession of surgical procedures have been tried, only to be found of limited value, or to be discarded entirely. But hope was rekindled when Columbia University's Dr. William Amols told the American Neurological Association that a new drug, carbamazepine-not yet generally available in the U.S.-has given relief to 75% of patients for as long as two years...
...basic cause of tic douloureux, or trigeminal neuralgia,* remains as little understood as the disease's power to set off stabbing, lightninglike pain, as severe as any known to man. It usually involves one side of the face, sometimes affects the forehead and eye region, but more often concentrates its attack on the cheek and jaw. In early stages, the stabs of pain last only a few seconds and may be hours apart. In more severe cases -and most victims get progressively worse-pains may recur several times a minute for hours or days, and leave a continuous "background...
Carbamazepine, to be sure, is not the answer for all tic douloureux victims. Dr. Amols made clear that ten patients had to quit it because of such side effects as severe rashes; four enjoyed only temporary benefit and then required surgery, while six got only the bad side effects. But as evidence of its value, Dr. Amols noted that before he began using it, his institute averaged 28 operations a year for tic douloureux; in one year with the new drug, the number dropped to 18, and last year to six. This year there has not been...