Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Objectives:
Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is the most distressful complication of herpes zoster. Postherpetic neuralgia results in an impaired quality of life and higher healthcare utilization. Vitamin B12 has been proven to be effective in pain relief for various conditions. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.
Do postherpetic neuralgia patients benefit from vitamin B12 supplementation?
Study design:
This review article included 4 RCTs (published between 2013 and 2016) including 383 participants.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found compared with the placebo group, the vitamin B12 group exhibited a significant decrease in the Numeric Rating Scale score, with a mean difference of -4.01 [95% CI = -4.70 to -3.33].
The investigators found compared with the placebo group, vitamin B12 administration improved the quality of life of postherpetic neuralgia patients with moderate quality evidence and significantly decreased the number of patients using analgesics.
The investigators concluded that vitamin B12 appears to be an attractive complementary therapy for postherpetic neuralgia patients. However, further investigation is needed before conclusive recommendations can be made.
Original title:
Vitamin B12 for herpetic neuralgia: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials by Wang JY, Wu YH, [...], Lu PH.
Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30477853
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on vitamin B12 and chronic diseases right here.
Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a nerve pain (neuralgia) that persists after a shingles rash has cleared. Postherpetic neuralgia is caused by the chickenpox (varicella-zoster) virus.