Treatment of Shingles

Unfortunately, for all and who have had this problem...this disease, there is no treatment for shingles. The cure and medication that you may be given by your pediatrician is only to cut down the duration of your illness and put off complications in the future. The medication your doctor may give you would help in alleviating your unpleasant feeling, and to endure the illness with as less pain as possible.

These medications include:

• Antiviral medicines, combined with corticosteroids, which is to help lessen the pain and the number of weeks one would have the shingles.
• Pain medicines, topical creams, any antidepressants, which are given to reduce and help in the long-term pain.

Initial treatment is given when you are diagnosed with having the shingles. Your doctor would probably then start giving you medication, starting with the antiviral medicines. Once you begin taking medicines within the first 72 hours of seeing the shingles symptoms, chance of having problems later, like the postherpetic neuralgia, would be slim to none. As much as possible, we should get treatment early on. This is very important because the complications that can happen could be serious and it might be resistant to treatment in the long run. Based on the survey made, 40% to 50% of individuals diagnosed to have postherpetic neuralgia do not respond anymore to treatment.

Ongoing treatment for shingles is also treated as important as starting in the beginning. If you experience pain that lasts longer than four weeks, and this is after the rash heals, then your doctor, or health professional may establish that you have postherpetic neuralgia, and this is the most frequent problem of shingles patients.

Postherpetic neuralgia is able to prolong your pain to weeks, to months and even to years. Based on some studies made, the postherpetic neuralgia include around 10% to 15% of shingles patients. Here are some treatment we can suggest to reduce the pain of postherpetic neuralgia, and these include any antidepressant medicines, an example of this would be tricyclic antidepressant, like amitriptyline Topical anesthetics, and an example of this would be those lidocaine patches, and the purpose of this is to numb the area. Anticonvulsant medicines are recommended and examples of these are gabapentin or pregabalin, and lastly, opioids, such as codeine.

Topical creams help in relieving the pain, and these creams contain capsaicin. Some people who may have sensitive skin, would find capsaicin a bit strong, and this type of medication may aggravate or burn the skin, so this should always be used with warning and care.

Should you condition get worse, shingles can cause long-term complications. The treatment would depend on the specific complication.