Re: Can antibiotics cause pain relief?

September 6, 2005

The stock answer is that some antibiotics also have anti-

inflammatory properties. Minocycline is a well known one. It's used

both for acne and RA, officially for its anti-inflammatory

properties, not its antimicrobial abilities.

However, I've talked to so many patients with severe jaw/face pain

who were told their condition was due to nerve damage, nothing else,

and yet, when these people took certain antibiotics, their pain

would go away. The improvement was so significant that they kept

pursuing the infection angle, despite discouragement from doctors

and dentists who swore it was the nerve. Many of these people

pursued better testing and were eventually dx'd with chronic

osteomyelitis (bone infection).

I also have chronic OM, although came about the dx a bit

differently. I didn't start with jaw pain, it came later. I only

experienced occasional mild flare ups of one crowned tooth, (and

didn't want to have a root canal) but when I started investigating

the idea that infection was the cause of my CFS (chronic fatigue

syndrome) and other various autoimmune dxs, that possibly infected

tooth was the only place I had to start. I took Cipro and was

amazed to find that the antibiotic actually relieved my fatigue and

brain fog, so I pursued the infection angle further which led me to

a dx of severely infected wisdom teeth, which I then had removed.

Due to a lot of osteonecrosis in the jaw, I lost a lot of bone in

that surgery, and unfortunately, was not treated with abx properly.

The infection spread, and since then, I have had certain areas in my

jaw and teeth that can be mildly painful under certain conditions.

However, those areas act as a barometer for me. When I'm on the

right antibiotic, I can always tell it's working because the pain

goes away. If it comes back, I know I need to up my dose or switch

abx. And it's not just an anti-inflammatory effect that I'm

experiencing, because at the same time, when I'm on the right abx,

my fatigue and brain fog subside substantially as well. So yes, I

definitely believe that abx can reduce pain, especially where the

focus of infection is. I've seen it time and again in all kinds of

people with chronic jaw/facial pain. On the other hand, pain caused

by inflammation which results from the infection, may not respond as

well. Inflammation can take on a life of its own. Eg. After surgery

on the jaw, I also suddenly developed a kind of all over arthritic

type body pain (as well as tendon pain after the Cipro, same family

as levaquin, which actually has a higher incidence of tendon pain

than cipro). This pain did NOT respond to the abx the way the jaw

pain does, where I know the active focus of infection is. The other

pain, I believe, is a result of various bodily immune system

responses to the infection (including inflammation), and will be

much slower to resolve if the inflammatory cycle is not interrupted.

For me, taking an experimental anti-inflammatory drug has relieved

all those other pain symptoms. I'm currently on 2 antibiotics, an

anti-fungal, as well as a powerful anti-inflammatory and my

arthritic type symptoms, neck pain, migraines, etc. are gone. I'm

feeling the best I've felt in many years. :-)

penny

> Hello. I'm new to this group. While going through papers I came

upon

> some notes made by a friend who suffered severe incompacitating

> osteomyelitis, disabling knee pain and stiffness, along with

> dimpling edema of the lower legs. A preexisting bone infection in

> the ethmoid felt especially painful while the knee and edema

> problems came into being. This middle aged female is in severe

pain

> and taking antibiotics and strong analgesics. Pain relievers do

help

> but antibiotics result in significant relief. Why would

antibiotics

> act like pain killers in this situation? I really could use your

> comments and advice now. The following is an excerpt from the

notes.

> In the late 90's I had surgery where they removed sludgy bone

> turbinates and ethmoid bones which confirmed my osteo. After

> almost 2 ½ years on IV vancomycin my infection had been wiped out.

> However, as soon as the antibiotics were removed I relapsed. After

> IV vanco I started with a cough and realized it went away with

> leviquin so I decided to take it upon myself to take it until my

> pain stopped. As the bone constricted I had tortuous pain the

entire

> 6 months. I finally stopped having pain in 2000, and was

completely

> symptom free. My bone scan was so perfect that I couldn't convince

> my new doctor how extensive and involved my scull based infection

> was. I was good for a week and in a month later I had a positive

> bone scan. I was taken off of antibiotics for 8 months with a

> progressively worsening bone scans. I could never arrange a

culture

> because I had so much pain. So the past 2 years I've been on 3 PO

> antibiotics .Until they started doing comparative WBC/3 phase bone

> scans the radiologists would always interpret my HIGHLIGHTED bone

> scans as clear. I've always had immediate blood pooling in the

> ethmoid nasal root area which I believe was causing my cough [area

> confirmed by pulmonologist.] I finally got some doctors to

evaluate

> my situation and they recommended rotating antibiotics for the

rest

> of my live since this was deemed an unsafe area for surgery. My

> scans are improved and my orbit CAT scan shows thickening which

they

> are not sure of is infection. I faithfully take my antibiotics

and

> I can feel myself improving but have near screaming levels of pain

> even with all my narcotics on board. I'm nauseous and delirious

from

> the intensity of the pain. Please understand I'm desperate. I

can't

> cope with another 2 year cycle of pain. Now I have dimpling edema

on

> my legs and have sudden severe knee pain [both knees.]

> Any insight into my friend's problems? Sorry for the very long

post.

> Sincerely,

September 6, 2005

Can antibiotics cause pain relief?

Absolutely!! This is all I took for pain control. The other beaut

thing- if there adminstered properly before a heap of damage is done

your completely well again.Your friend also sounds like someone

treating one part of her infection. I just placed something in the

photos section that had been sent to me 2 and a half years ago and

it's obvious that they only tackled 'part of her infection'.

Try cephazolin next time with your vanco and you may get more pain

relief, although if the therapy is a bit spasmodic the cephazolin

reaching low levels in your blood can hurt you, actually, similar in

nature to you not being on anything.