Usually, pain is felt when special nerve endings sense that something is wrong with your body and send pain signals to your spinal cord and brain. Neuropathic pain occurs when the nerves themselves are damaged by disease or injury, causing them to misfire and send pain signals to the brain. The resulting pain is often severe and can be difficult to manage.
Neuropathic pain is usually described as shooting, stabbing or burning, sometimes it feels like an electrical shock, and is often worse at night than during the day. The pain may be constant or it may come and go, and it may be accompanied by tingling sensations or numbness.
Neuropathic pain is caused by damage to, or dysfunction of, the nervous system. Several factors that can cause damage to nerve are diabetes, trauma, stroke, vitamin deficiency, alcohol abuse, tumour & certain infections like shingles & HIV.
Neuropathic pain is disabling and difficult to treat; it requires drugs, local applications, physiotherapy, psychological support and sometimes special procedures. The underlying condition should be kept under control eg diabetes.