Burning nerve pain?

[brian32]

Can someone tell me if there is nerve pain associated with ALS? Alos is there any demylination associated with ALS?

Thanks,
Brian

[wright]

NO . . . there is no burning nerve pain with ALS. That pain is produced by sensory nerves and ALS does not affect those types of nerves. Maybe in the very late stages of ALS those nerves can become inflammed indirectly, but otherwise, they will not be affected.
Demyelinization is not part of ALS either. That is why conduction velocity during the NCS is normal with ALS. Once again, it the late stages of ALS there could be a bit of demyelinization, but this is once again an indirect affect.
If you have neuropathic pain along with slowed conduction velocity in your NCS, then that is good news, because you have something that is treatable. It could very well be CIDP or Guillian Barre or any other disease that affects mixed nerves.

[brian32]

Thanks for your reply. Do you know if nerve pain and demylination go along with any other Motor neuron diseases besides ALS or is it just associated with autoimmune disorders?

Thanks,
Brian

[wright]

Once again, burning nerve pain IS NOT a part of ANY motor neuron disease! Burning nerve pain is associated with peripheral sensory nerves. It is most often associated with peripheral neuropathy, which can occur for a bunch of reasons and sometimes it's idiopathic (that is, they have no idea why it happens) . . . but can be associated with peripheral diseases such as CIDP or Guillian Barre for example.

Again, if you or anyone else has burning nerve pain, you do not have a motor neuron disease. As I also said before, you can feel burning nerve pain later on in the course of a motor neuron disease due to edema for example, but that is a secondary affect.

[wright]

P.S. Radiculopathy (caused for example by a slipped disk or bone spurs of the vertebral column that affects nerve roots from the spinal cord . . . which again are also peripheral nerves) could also cause burning nerve pain.

Bottom line: lots of things can cause burning nerve pain BUT motor neuron disease is not one of them.

[brian32]

Thank you for the info.