Cough syrup cream to ease severe face pain

Acream made from cough medicine could be an unlikely new remedy for agonising face pain suffered by thousands of people in the UK.

The rub- on cream contains a drug called ambroxol, which has been used for decades in cough syrups to break up mucus in the lungs.

But now scientists have discovered it also has powerful painkilling properties and have turned it into a face cream to treat trigeminal neuralgia, a condition that triggers unbearable sharp pains in the head and face.

In tests, volunteers who applied the cream to their faces and forehead during an attack were pain-free in just 15 minutes. most also reported fewer attacks and some were able to reduce their prescription medication.

It’s not known exactly how many people in the UK suffer with trigeminal neuralgia but studies suggest doctors diagnose up to 15,000 new cases a year.

The condition is caused by compression of the trigeminal nerve in the skull, usually due to a nearby blood vessel pressing against it.

THIS nerve transmits sensations of pain and touch from the face, teeth and mouth to the brain. Painful attacks affecting the jaw, cheek, forehead or eyes can be sparked by the most innocuous triggers — such as washing your face, brushing your teeth or even stepping out into a light breeze.

Treatment normally begins with a prescription anticonvulsant drug called carbamazepine to try to prevent attacks. Trials have found it can keep trigeminal neuralgia at bay by slowing down the electrical impulses in the nerve, reducing its ability to transmit pain signals to the brain.

however, carbamazepine has to be taken three times a day and can cause side- effects such as nausea, vomiting, a swollen tongue and loss of co-ordination. If it has little benefit, patients can have surgery to deliberately damage the trigeminal nerve to stop it sending pain signals. But there is a risk of permanent numbness.

scientists behind the ‘cough cream’ are confident it will offer an effective and convenient treatment. ambroxol helps to thin mucus clogging up the airway, but it was also known to be a powerful anaesthetic.

researchers at the Institute for Pain medicine in Wiesbaden, Germany, reformulated ambroxol so that it would work in a face cream and be absorbed through the skin. They recruited five patients who had failed to get better with existing drugs and were facing surgery.

all five were told to apply the cream on the painful area during an attack.

The results, published in the journal headache, showed all five experienced significant reductions in pain and some felt complete relief within 15 minutes, which lasted up to six hours.

There were no side- effects or reddening of the skin and two of the five patients were able to cut back on carbamazepine after just a week of using the cream, suggesting it was also helping to prevent attacks.

Though the trial was small, the findings were so positive researchers plan to carry out larger studies ‘as a matter of urgency’.

Dr andy Dowson, a headache and face pain specialist at King’s college hospital in London, said the new cream could be a convenient solution for many patients.

‘It’s considerably stronger than lidocaine [a powerful anaesthetic] so could potentially bring rapid relief for sufferers. But bigger trials are needed first.’