New Wrinkle for Old Drug It’s not just for smoothing laugh lines. Botulinum toxin may have the potential to ease OA pain.| Arthritis Today Magazine

Widely used by doctors to soften forehead wrinkles and reduce uncontrollably sweaty armpits, researchers now are exploring botulinum toxin as a potential therapy for osteoarthritis (OA) pain. Although botulinum toxin (Botox, Dysport, Myobloc) has been studied since the 1950s, recent studies on its use in osteoarthritis pain suggest it could be a new analgesic option for a group of patients that's been hard to treat. "The Botox story is very intriguing," says David Felson, MD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University. "It isn't just muscles. It can paralyze nerves. Just like celebrities injecting it into wrinkles, it could have the same effect on a hip muscle. Botox could paralyze the muscle that is transmitting pain." A powerful neurotoxin produced by a bacterium that can cause deadly botulism poisoning at higher doses, botulinum toxin has an anticholinergic effect, meaning it can block the delivery of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to the central nervous system, an action which can cause the body to produce chronic pain signals. The substance can temporarily paralyze muscles for a few months, easing painful spasms and tightness in muscles around OA-affected joints. It can also have an antinociceptive effect, meaning it can block nociceptors, or pain receptors, from sending a pain signal up the spinal cord to the brain. This toxin may eventually be used to treat OA patients whose pain is not sufficiently controlled by tra...
Source: Psychology of Pain - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs