Talk:Peripheral neuropathy

New section? "Potential implications/problems"
Seems like there needs to be a "Potential implications" section (all on its own, so it doesn't get unduly buried under a specific subtopic), at least addressing the potential (serious) derivative problems (e.g., diabetic ulcers) that folks like diabetics can experience because of peripheral neuropathy. (I'm not a medical person & don't feel qualified to write this, but it seems like it should be addressed.) philiptdotcom (talk) 13:51, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Q: Gain-of-function vs. loss-of-function symptoms
Could someone go into the difference between gain-of-function and loss-of-function symptoms? I assume that having gain-of-function symptoms is somehow better? Do they indicate that the nerves are healing? If itching is a gain-of-function symptom, does that mean that neuropathic itching is unlikely to be continuing/permanent? Or could someone just have itching for the rest of their lives? -- Creidieki 4 July 2005 18:43 (UTC)

==A?: I had the same Q, and did some extra searching. The PANSS wiki article had the following comment which seems to make sense: "positive symptoms, meaning those symptoms of disease that manifest as the presence of traits, and the syndrome of negative symptoms,meaning those symptoms that manifest as the absence of traits." In this context, the terms "gain of function" and "positve symptom" seem to mean "addition of unexpected or unusual traits or sensations" rather than "restoration of lost functions, or symptoms, of a condition toward normalcy". Would someone with real expertise in this field please confirm this and also update the reference links. Thanks. 208.100.252.61 17:44, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Anecdotal Answer
You probably don't want anecdote, but for the sake of satisfying curiousity: I have positive peripheral neuropathy in my feet, resulting from vinblastine therapy for Hodgkin's Lymphoma six years ago. It has become progressively worse over the last few years, to the point where I am only up making this entry (and an edit) because I can't sleep due to it and I'm waiting for some pills to kick in. My symptoms are best described as 24/7 pins-and-needles, ranging from barely noticable or even not noticable, to constant non-ignorable irritation like now, to occasional "stabs" of pain which last a fraction of a second, and which occur on average about once or twice a day. Fortunately for me the times of worse pain come at night, possibly due to being horizontal, so it doesn't prevent me from putting on socks and shoes, walking around, etc. However I cannot have my feet touched -- I startled my poor little niece last year when she innocently tickled my foot and I YELLED in pain: poor thing was startled half to death and it's hard to explain to a two-year-old that everyone else's feet are perfectly good tickling targets while Uncle Chris' aren't :).

I definitely have something to contribute to this topic but I'm certainly not going to throw anecdotes like this in there -- but as I said, for the sake of curiousity fulfillment. -- Tofino 08:46, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

The article states two types of peropheral neuropathy and elaborated on symetrical but there isn't information regarding focal or multifocal perpipheral neuropathy.

Combine with main neuropathy article!
The article neuropathy states that this term is generally used synonymously with "peripheral neuropathy". I think a redirect is appropriate here, along with combining the two articles into one. Wwallacee 15:48, 27 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I disagree. Neuropathy, from what I can gather, refers to ALL types of pathologies of nerves.  Peripheral neuropathy is a specific type, not inclusive of a non peripheral neuropathy like radiculopathy.   Sure, it generally may be used for peripheral neuropathies, but that's like suggesting we combine the articles bear and brown bear because generally, you are only going to see brown bears.  The content may need to be better stratified amongst the two articles (I can't tell I haven't looked them over, and frankly I don't know that I'm qualified), but there ought to be two articles, minimum. Root4(one) 22:57, 6 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Wwallacee is completely right. I was going to address the matter myself if not for the fact that it's already been done. It's pretty straightforward and logical: Since Neuropathy is generally accepted as simply being short for Peripheral Neuropathy technically they're the same thing and therefore do not constitute a need for separate articles. It would be like having an article for United States and then one for United States of America. The logical thing would be to merge the entire contents of the two articles, per Wikipedia guidelines. To be fair, I would suggest keeping this name since this is the more formal term and let there be a compensatory disambiguation page or simply one big article for all types of neuropathy if it so satisfies you. One way or another, there's no justifiable reason for both articles to exist.


 * -Alan 69.116.186.229 (talk) 04:17, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

As I see it:
 * neuropathy can be cranial or peripheral;
 * peripheral neuropathy can be mononeuropathy, mononeuritis multiplex or polyneuropathy;
 * polyneuropathy can be axonopathy, myelinopathy or neuronopathy (as explained on the Peripheral_neuropathy page, though the word polyneuropathy is not used here);
 * and axonopathy can be length-dependent (distal or dying-back neuropathy) or non-length-dependent.

At present the neuropathy page consists mostly of discussion of neuropathic pain, while Neuropathic_pain itself redirects to Neuralgia, where most of the discussion is of pain from individual nerves rather than polyneuropathies.

These pages could therefore IMHO benefit from considerable reorganisation, but it would have to involve the whole group of pages. I'd be delighted to have a go at it, but I'd appreciate comments from administrators before making such large-scale changes.

− Neurotip (talk) 22:04, 25 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I would say Neurotip go for it per,WP:BEBOLD. You clearly understand the subject matter. You don't need administrators permission to edit pages. Admins have no more clout than average editors as far as editing content goes, they are only editors with additional tools for blocking vandals and deleting pages and stuff like that. If you are looking for feedback, I would recommend going to the talk pages of these two projects WikiProject_Medicine as well as here WikiProject Medicine/Neurology task force. If you have knowledge and the references to back up facts, I would say just get "stuck in" for want of a better expression. :)-- Literature geek |  T@1k?  00:24, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

OK, may I suggest the following? All I'm proposing here is movement of content into a more logical (IMHO) arrangement. Clearly the articles themselves need a great deal of work, but at the moment I'm just canvassing opinion on the arrangement of articles, before any content is changed. I'll crosspost this to the other relevant talk pages. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neurotip (talk • contribs) 17:43, 14 November 2009 (UTC) Neurotip (talk) 17:47, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Peripheral neuropathy should be the central article. Here is a draft version of it on my userpage.
 * This subsumes the content of the following pages, all of which should be deleted and the terms redirected to Peripheral neuropathy: mononeuropathy, mononeuritis multiplex, polyneuropathy, axonopathy, myelinopathy, neuronopathy, autonomic neuropathy, neuritis (motor neuropathy and sensory neuropathy should also redirect here). Note the hatnote to Neuropathy (disambiguation), where cranial neuropathies etc. are referenced.
 * The parts of Neuropathy that deal with neuropathic pain should form a new Neuropathic pain article, drafted here.
 * The following articles should remain as they are for now: Small fiber peripheral neuropathy, Motor neurone disease, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Diabetic neuropathy, Neuralgia.


 * I have replied to the talk page of your draft version here, User_talk:Neurotip/Neuropathy/Peripheral_neuropathy. I am not knowledgable enough about peripheral neuropathy and its subtypes to comment on which should be merged and which should be kept. Have you considered posting on Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Medicine and Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Medicine/Neurology_task_force? Might be worth getting their views on the proposed merging of those articles. In the mean time why not update this article with your draft version?-- Literature geek |  T@1k?  18:07, 14 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Agreeing with Neurotip. However, I'm not a doctor or medical expert and I'm deferring to people who know more about this subject than me. I think the persons who know what they're talking about here should make these decisions about merging or not merging. And I'm agreeing with Literaturegeek about WP:BOLD.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 00:59, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I disagree. Neuropathy should be the central article. This is damage to a nerve. All nerves are peripheral (has anyone ever heard of a non-peripheral nerve?) therefore this is a pleonasm.
 * Reference to the old nomenclature should be addressed at the very beginning stating that “neuropathy” was once - and unnecessarily - referenced to as “peripheral neuropathy”.
 * I believe that the main massage that needs to be conveyed to the reader is that neuropathy means damage to a nerve. Lopkiol (talk) 07:49, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

I saw the advertisement for this discussion at WT:MED. I made a few fairly unimportant changes to the draft at User:Neurotip/Neuropathy/Peripheral_neuropathy, and, overall, I think that this rearrangement will be an improvement. I have the following questions and suggestions:


 * What happened to Mononeuropathy? A few examples help us build the web and thereby direct readers to their particular areas of interest.
 * Polyneuropathy is probably too big to merge in. I suggest keeping the original article, and leaving a Main summary of it in the new article.  (This means:  Shorten what you've got, and add   to the top of what's left.)
 * Some details from Axonopathy and Myelinopathy seem to have gotten a bit lost. They are possibly too detailed for this article.  I suggest merging anything that seems accurate, plus anything else that you think might be interesting, into a new section of Polyneuropathy, perhaps named ==Classification==, and pointing these two articles (plus Neuronopathy) at the Polyneuropathy article.  (Keep the three bullets already in this article.)  Don't make the mistake of always writing for patients:  these articles need to provide information that will interest non-patients, such as students, or researchers, or polymaths, too.
 * What is the difference between Autonomic neuropathy and Autonomic dysfunction? Can/should we address that here?

Other than that -- be bold! Wikipedia needs help like this from subject-matter experts (or even from people with a little bit of familiarity with the subject matter).

Also, as a particular favor to me, when you redirect a page to something else, please remove the WPMED tag from the new redirect's talk page. WPMED is not tagging redirects at this time. The new peripheral neuropathy article will be C-class until it's better sourced. WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:22, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your comments, WhatamIdoing. I basically agree with everything you said and will incorporate your ideas. Specifically:
 * (Mononeuropathy) The examples were all of compressive neuropathies, a fairly comprehensive list of which is at Compression neuropathy. This is linked in the text under Mononeuropathy, but perhaps a couple of examples with a more prominent link would be helpful.
 * (Polyneuropathy) The reason I included the details of polyneuropathy in the peripheral neuropathy article is that I expect most people who come to the latter article will be looking for details of the former. The term peripheral neuropathy is in fact widely used (among British doctors at any rate) to refer to polyneuropathy. Still, I agree that it's both more logical and neater to have a separate polyneuropathy article. I'll make the changes.
 * (Axonopathy and Myelinopathy) That's a very good idea. I'll do that.
 * (Autonomic neuropathy and Autonomic dysfunction) Ha! Missed that one. The former is one cause of the latter, but there are others (multiple system atrophy for example). It does deserve a mention.
 * Neurotip (talk) 16:46, 16 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Is there a name for non-compression mononeuropathy, or a possible example we can give of that?
 * I want to clarify (just in case!) that this page needs to retain a robust and readable summary of polyneuropathy, since it's indeed important to this subject. I just have some hopes that Polyneuropathy will eventually be quite comprehensive.
 * Thanks, WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:12, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

OK, boldly going ahead with edits. Deep breath... Neurotip (talk) 17:52, 22 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Very impressive, well done! Thank you for your work.-- Literature geek |  T@1k?  02:10, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Excuse my ignorance, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was something important to do after converting an existing page to a redirect, in terms of the pages that link to it. I've looked in the help files and can't find anything. Am I imagining things? Neurotip (talk) 17:21, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Not that I am aware of, the only thing that you need to do is redirect the page and any links to that page will be redirected.-- Literature geek |  T@1k?  08:51, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Is thers some list of or category for peripheral neuropathies?
If such a thing exists, I have a few things to add. carpal tunnel syndrome, ulnar nerve entrapment, etc.Root4(one) 22:59, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm only a casual Wiki reader so I'm not comfortable makin' changes to its pages, but: "Peripheral neuropathy is the term for damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous system,[1] which may be caused either by diseases of the nerve or from the side-effects of systemic illness."

I think 'or injury' should be added to that list of causes; I was in a motorcycle wreck, no helmet and I suffer from neuropathy because of a brain injury. :-S Dave 15:52, 2 July 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Davesilvan (talk • contribs)

Hypersensitivity
Is saying that the patients are "prohibited" from having anything touching certain parts of the body accurate? "Prohibited" suggests an authoritative agent, when perhaps the patient finds the experience prohibitive, or possibly the patient prohibitis others from touching certain parts of his body. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iain marcuson (talk • contribs) 06:25, August 25, 2007 (UTC)
 * Trust me, the word 'prohibits' works in this case. My mother has the disease around her entire body (metal fume fever caused it) and she will freak out if anyone gets near her in some kind of poking motion. I think a lighter word may be useful, but 'prohibits' will fit until a better word is chosen. 12.197.112.117 (talk) 06:01, 27 September 2008 (UTC)


 * how about 'shun', 'avoid', 'prevent' or 'forbid'? 76.218.248.127 (talk) 15:59, 7 September 2014 (UTC)

Reference section
Reads like an endorsement for clinicsWP:LINKS PB666 yap 22:00, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Polyneuropathy - Due to Radio Waves
Modern science has established that the Axon Hillock is RF sensitive and complex RF emissions, either deliberate or accidental, can induce Polyneuropathy. Can we track down some sources on this and add them to the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.47.126.236 (talk) 08:32, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
 * As long as the sources are WP:secondary sources and checked with WP:MEDRS, of course it is fine. But if it just primary material, it is not...  Lova Falk     talk   09:37, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Frankincense & Myrrh - product promotion and unsubstantiated claim?
This paragraph which was added today, seems to me to be an insidious product promotion. I believe it lacks scientific merit. If you check reference [25] you will see it's just a paper presenting a single case. I can't comment on [26] and [27], no knowledge. I hope you agree with me that a single case doesn't prove anything...

I believe this whole paragraph should be removed:


 * Frankincense & Myrrh makes a topical homeopathic medicine to relieve neuropathy using a blend of essential oil called Frankincense & Myrrh Neuropathy.[25] These essential oils have shown in testing to give significant pain relief to those suffering from peripheral diabetic neuropathy within 15 minutes of application. [26]A small amount of oil is applied to the skin local to the pain, then massaged in. There are no known side effects to Frankincense & Myrrh, but it is characterized by the odor of eucalyptus.[27] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.110.246.226 (talk) 07:34, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Why does "radiculoneuropathy" redirect here?
Not mentioned in article. 109.157.79.50 (talk) 04:27, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Rewrite Peripheral neuropathy as a summary of Neuritis?
Today, Neuritis which had been a redirect (with possibilities) to Peripheral neuropathy, was changed into being its own article. If that is to remain, Peripheral neuropathy should be rewritten to be a summary of Neuritis, see Summary style. --Pipetricker 18:17, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

A lot more substantiation/explanation needed.
The article has a lot of useful information but many statements are unreferenced e.g. "glucose levels in the blood may spike to nerve-damaging levels". The one figure is not well explained for the non-expert. First, one needs a comparison to normal nerve. Second, the various visible structures should all be labelled. What are the dark blobs? A close-up of individual axons and other structures would help. Paulhummerman (talk) 12:27, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Precision.
Many people who do everything for the best possible management of the drug. Which remains a complicated problem to stop. And that we try to stop in the best possible way. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seekthetruth-weigh the benefits and risks (talk • contribs) 21:34, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Causes: excess intake of vitamin B6??
Is this contribution (and here's the contributor's complete history!!) a joke / prank? (vandalism?)

It's been there since 2008!

- SquisherDa (talk) 01:24, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Treatment subsection
Added treatment sub-section on surgery David notMD (talk) 19:33, 19 July 2022 (UTC)