Just FWIW, while Dr. Burchiel may be a signatory to the recent re-classification I believe he helped create this psychogenic that to me seemed unfortunate. After treating my wife with two procedures he decided she had ATFP and dismissed her as a patient. Various doctors believe that Brandie's pain is not conversion or psychosomatic. Certain treatments impact her pain and it does not move around. While I applaud him changing his opinion on the category of ATFP I have not personally had a great experience with him. I think he helped perpetuate this unfortunate category.
Richard A. "Red" Lawhern said:
Thanks for the acknowledgment, Gloria and Linda. Between you, you made my day. Linda be aware that Dr. Kim Burcheil on the OHSU medical center staff is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the TN Association -- and a signatory to the recent article re-classifying "Atypical Facial Pain" as a set of symptoms of "obscure" etiology.
At Stanford Medical Center, CA our last group TNA meeting with Dr.Chang as our guest speaker. The topic was the 7 types of face pain. My memory is bad. But I will try too get the list and post it so we could help educate people better.
This list included what you are stating here plus the definitions of the other types.
Red, is there something like that on this site already?
I've discussed various types of face pain in one of the articles in our cluster on "Face Pain Info" in the page menus. The fact sheet at the main page concentrates on Type I and II TN and trigeminal neuropathic pain. The seven-category classification may be that of Dr Kim Burcheil. His classifications aren't universally accepted and I believe have been rejected definitively by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). But he felt comfortable with the Fact Sheet when I ran it past him.
I think you are correct about it being Burcheil's list. Personally I think it made the most sense.
Dr. Chang also backed up how my pain has evolved over the years by saying that it is a progressive illness. Which is sorted out in the 7 types.
OK new rule - LOL "all medical stuff needs to be written only by people with personal experience who truly understand. In other words patients make better doctors." only in my little world "sigh"
Congratulations and thank you! Your hard work and your tenaciousness will help so many TN suffers now and future generations.
The Medical Director of a famous Epilepsy Center was my physician. He is national recognized as on of the best in the country. He was unable to stop my seizures. So he labeled them Somatom Seizures and recommended that I see a psychiatrist that specializes in pseudo seizures. Of course he didn't know of one to recommend.
I found a psychiatrist and told him what the epilepsy doctor said. I want to share this because I think it is relevant to this issue. He said that 'if seizures were caused by a psychological condition, then why don't a major epilepsy center not have psychiatrist on staff"?
I have bilateral (atypical) TN & GPN. Thank so much Red for helping the medical community see that just because they don't know what is causing a disease doesn't mean it's psychological.
Alice et al: feel free to share the attached article with your psychiatrist and with the Epilepsy Center doctor who committed such gross malpractice. "Psychogenic Pain and Iatrogenic Suicide" has been published on DxSummit.org. It is based on a landmark study of chronic pain conditions and suicide done by the US Veterans Administration, and on my own work with the patient survey at Ben's Friends.