The relationship of Vitamin B 12 with Two Symptoms of Shingles: Who has Pain and Who has Itch?

Background; Both herpetic pain and itching in shingles are two symptoms whose pathogenesis has not been elucidated, although they are thought to be due to nerve damage. These two symptoms are difficult to treat and negative impact quality of life. In addition, It is unclear which patient will have the symptoms of itching or pain. Vitamin B 12 is a neurotropic agent which is contributes to the treatment of nerve damage, and effective in treating neuropathic pain and itch. In this study we investigated that is relationship between vitamin B12 both herpetic pain and herpetic itch. Methods; In this study, we investigated the effect of vitamin B12 values on itching and pain symptoms that patients with shingles have in the acute period. Vitamin B 12 values of 53 adults with patients with shingles with herpetic pain or herpetic itching were recorded and compared with the control group. Results; We found that patients with herpetic pain had lower vitamin B12 values than the control group (p=0.046) and patients with herpetic itch (p=0.021). Vitamin B12 values of herpetic itch patients did not show significant difference from the control group (p=0.816). Conclusions; Although vitamin B12 deficiency plays a role in the etiology of herpetic pain, it has no effect on herpetic itching. Our study supports that the etiopathogenesis of HI is different from herpetic pain, and will help studies focusing on herpetic itching etiopathogenesis.