RT Book, Section A1 Wong, Edison H. A1 Bajwa, Zahid H. A2 Bajwa, Zahid H. A2 Wootton, R. Joshua A2 Warfield, Carol A. SR Print(0) ID 1131934380 T1 Peripheral Neuropathies T2 Principles and Practice of Pain Medicine, 3e YR 2016 FD 2016 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071766838 LK neurology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1131934380 RD 2024/03/29 AB Painful polyneuropathy (PN) is a debilitating neurologic problem and frequently a challenging therapeutic management issue. Difficulties in managing patients are too often the result of poor understanding of their problem on the part of the treating physician. Many physicians assume that there is no need to work up neuropathy because the final outcome is likely to be an idiopathic, axonal disorder for which there is no effective therapy. In fact, many neuropathies are responsive to immunosuppressive and other conservative therapies. Although responses to such therapy constitute the minority, they should be vigorously sought before telling patients there is no treatment for their progressive disorder. In many cases, treatment of the PN also leads to improved pain control; however, pain is often a primary issue in and of itself and must be treated irrespective of the potential for improvement of the underlying PN. In these cases, pain management specialists may work in concert with neurologists to provide a comprehensive treatment approach.