Self-care for peripheral neuropathy in HIV/AIDS
Peripheral neuropathy is the most common neurological complication in HIV, and it’s often associated with antiretroviral therapy. Patients experience muscle weakness and atrophy, pain, and numbness.
Here’s what people use to manage the discomfort.
450 respondents from several US cities, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Taiwan identified self-care behaviors.
- A hot bath was the most frequent strategy listed by 292 patients, and it received the highest overall rating of effectiveness among self-management strategies listed 8.1 (scale 1 [least] – 10 [most effective]).
Other self-care strategies (from most to least common) to manage this symptom included?
- Staying off the feet
- Rubbing the feet with cream
- Elevating the feet
- Walking
- Prescribed anti-epileptic agent
- Prescribed analgesics
- Over-the-counter medications
- Vitamin B
- Calcium supplements
- Magnesium
- Massage
- Acupuncture
- Reflexology
- Meditation
Several less commonly used behaviors that the authors referred to as “unhealthy” included?
- Marijuana
- Cigarette smoking
- Drinking alcohol
- Street drugs
MayoClinic.com discusses other CAM and mainstream treatments.
7/30/07 20:53 JR