TY - JOUR
T1 - Capsaicin 8% dermal patch in clinical practice
T2 - an expert opinion
AU - Bonezzi, Cesare
AU - Costantini, Amedeo
AU - Cruccu, Giorgio
AU - Fornasari, Diego M.M.
AU - Guardamagna, Vittorio
AU - Palmieri, Vincenzo
AU - Polati, Enrico
AU - Zini, Pierangelo
AU - Dickenson, Anthony H.
N1 - Funding Information:
Editorial assistance was provided by Luca Giacomelli, PhD, Barbara Bartolini, PhD, and Aashni Shah (Polistudium SRL, Milan, Italy), and was supported by Grunethal.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/7/23
Y1 - 2020/7/23
N2 - Introduction: Neuropathic pain (NP) is caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory system, which can severely impact patients’ quality of life. The current-approved treatments for NP comprise of both centrally acting agents and topical drugs, including capsaicin 8% dermal patches, which is approved for the treatment of peripheral NP. Areas covered: The authors summarize literature data regarding capsaicin use in patients who suffer from NP and discuss the clinical applications of this topical approach. Expert opinion: Overall, the capsaicin 8% dermal patch is as effective in reducing pain intensity as other centrally active agents (i.e. pregabalin). Some studies have also reported fewer systemic side effects, a faster onset of action and superior treatment satisfaction compared with systemic agents. In our opinion, capsaicin 8% dermal patches also present additional advantages, such as a good systemic tolerability, the scarcity of adverse events, the possibility to combine it with other agents, and a good cost-effective profile. It is important to note that, as the mechanism of action of capsaicin 8% is the ‘defunctionalization’ of small afferent fibers through interaction with TRPV1 receptors, the peripheral expression of this receptor on nociceptor fibers, is crucial to predict patient’s response to treatment.
AB - Introduction: Neuropathic pain (NP) is caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory system, which can severely impact patients’ quality of life. The current-approved treatments for NP comprise of both centrally acting agents and topical drugs, including capsaicin 8% dermal patches, which is approved for the treatment of peripheral NP. Areas covered: The authors summarize literature data regarding capsaicin use in patients who suffer from NP and discuss the clinical applications of this topical approach. Expert opinion: Overall, the capsaicin 8% dermal patch is as effective in reducing pain intensity as other centrally active agents (i.e. pregabalin). Some studies have also reported fewer systemic side effects, a faster onset of action and superior treatment satisfaction compared with systemic agents. In our opinion, capsaicin 8% dermal patches also present additional advantages, such as a good systemic tolerability, the scarcity of adverse events, the possibility to combine it with other agents, and a good cost-effective profile. It is important to note that, as the mechanism of action of capsaicin 8% is the ‘defunctionalization’ of small afferent fibers through interaction with TRPV1 receptors, the peripheral expression of this receptor on nociceptor fibers, is crucial to predict patient’s response to treatment.
KW - capsaicin
KW - fibers
KW - Neuropathic pain
KW - topical treatment
KW - TRPV1 receptors
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U2 - 10.1080/14656566.2020.1759550
DO - 10.1080/14656566.2020.1759550
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32511032
AN - SCOPUS:85086938819
VL - 21
SP - 1377
EP - 1387
JO - Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy
JF - Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy
SN - 1465-6566
IS - 11
ER -