Phenytoin in Topical Formulations Augments Pain Reduction of Other Analgesics in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

Abstract

Topical analgesic formulations are gaining interest for the treatment of peripheral neuropathic pain since the beginning of 2000. Advantages of topical analgesics over oral medication are the absence of systemic side effects and drug-drug interactions, higher concentrations of active compound at the pain area, fast onset on action, improvement of compliance, and no risk of abuse. In many peripheral neuropathic pain states the pain area is small and thus topical analgesics are suitable. Most patients experience pain reducing effect within 30 minutes after application of compounded topical analgesics, such as creams containing amitriptyline, ketamine, baclofen, or clonidine. This helps to quickly identify responders on selected analgesic creams.

<p>Reducing Opioid Prescriptions by Identifying Responders on Topical Analgesic Treatment Using an Individualized Medicine and Predictive Analytics Approach</p>

“…This study demonstrated that topical analgesics could be a beneficial therapeutic alternative for most of chronic pain patients but there still existed some patients who did not benefit from it having an insignificant reduction of pain levels. 33 The present research work attempts to utilize machine learning in the context of an individualized medicine approach for chronic pain therapies. In specific, focus is given on a topical analgesics therapy and a machine learning approach is deployed to predict the outcomes of the therapy given the demographic and clinical profile of the patients.…”