Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome

Unlabeled Uses Cerebral vasospasm, migraines, Raynaud s syndrome, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, refractory depression, tardive dyskinesia, thyrotoxic crisis. 

Pathological conditions in which capsaicin itself is not sufficiently active, but more potent vanilloids are expected to be of greater therapeutic value. For example diabetic neuropathy (Ross and Varipapa, 1989), postherpetic neuralgia (Watson et al., 1988 Bernstein et al., 1989), chronic distal painful polyneuropathy (Low et al., 1995), post-mastectomy pain syndrome (Watson et al., 1989), Guillain-Barre syndrome (Morgenlander et al., 1990), reflex sympathetic dystrophy (Cheshire and Snyder, 1990), vulvar vestibulitis (Friedrich, 1988). 

These include postherpetic neuralgia, phantom limb pain, peripheral neuropathies of various causes, central pain, e.g. following a stroke, compression neuropathies, and the complex regional pain syndromes (comprising causalgia, when there is nerve damage, and reflex sympathetic dystrophy, when there is tissue but no nerve injury) they present the most challenging problems. 

Thalidomide was formerly used as a sedative/hyp-notic. It was approved in 1998 by the US Food and Drug Administration for use as an immunosuppressant in the treatment of erythema nodosum leprosum. It is also used in the treatment of graft-versus-host disease (Orphan drug status in the United States), macular degeneration, oral ulcers in AIDS patients, and reflex sympathetic dystrophy associated with chronic pain syndromes. 

---