[en] Pain typically accompanies acute herpes zoster and, in a proportion of patients, it persists well beyond rash healing. Pain must therefore be analyzed in trials of antiviral agents in herpes zoster, but different methods have been used to analyze pain in recent published trials. These reports are reviewed and their methodological strengths and weaknesses examined. Based on this review, recommendations for the design and analysis of future trials of antiviral agents in herpes zoster are proposed. The principal recommendation is that antiviral efficacy should be evaluated both by distinguishing post-herpetic neuralgia from acute pain and by considering pain as a continuum. The primary endpoint should address both the prevalence and duration of post-herpetic neuralgia and should be examined in those patients who have post-herpetic neuralgia. Adopting the proposed recommendations in design and analysis of future trials should facilitate comparison across trials of the efficacy of antiviral agents in the treatment of herpes zoster.
Disciplines :
Immunology & infectious disease
Author, co-author :
Dworkin, R. H.; Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
Carrington, D.; St George Hospital, London, UK
Cunningham, A.; Westmead Hospital, Westmead, Australia > Department of Virology
Kost, R.; National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Levin, M.; University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO, USA
McKendrick, M. W.; Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK
Oxman, M. N.; University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
Rentier, Bernard ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des Sciences de la Vie > Virologie fondamentale et Immunologie
Schmader, K.; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
Tappeiner, G.; Universitätsklinik für Dermatologie, Allgemeinses Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien, Vienna, Austria
Wassilew, S. W.; Dermatologische Klinik, Klinikum Krefeld, Germany
Whitley, R. J.; University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Language :
English
Title :
Assessment of pain in herpes zoster: lessons learned from antiviral trials
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