A cure for Paula Abdul's RSD?

This related story that was on TV in the southern NJ/Philadelphia area, NBC10.com
Abdul's Illness Brings Attention To Little-Known Disorder

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Can Be Treated

Singer Paula Abdul went public this week with her private battle with a debilitating pain disorder -- the same disorder that struck a former NBC 10 reporter.

Abdul said she has been in excruciating pain for 25 years and it wasn't until a few months ago that she was finally diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy.

Once she was diagnosed, she was one of the lucky ones. Doctors found something to make her pain almost go away completely.

The American Idol judge was in a cheerleading accident 25 years ago and injured a disc in her neck. Since then, she has undergone 12 operations and has been on many prescription painkillers trying to get rid of her excruciating pain. It wasn't until last fall that she was finally diagnosed with RSD.

"For instance, brushing a hand with a feather might cause significant pain in these patients," said Dr. Michael Goldberg, of Cooper University Hospital. Abdul found out that people thought she was acting weird because she was on drugs, so she decided to go public and told her story to People magazine.

"She was treated for inflammation and the result was almost overnight miraculous," Goldberg said.

Abdul gives herself weekly intramuscular injections of anti-inflammatory medicine. Other people with RSD need spinal cord stimulators or morphine pumps.

Former NBC 10 reporter Angela Delvecchio went to Cooper University Hospital for experimental ketamine infusions to treat her RSD. Ketamine is known as a street drug called Special K. However, ketamine is meant to be an anesthetic.

"We also know that ketamine blocks the NMDA receptor, which is responsible for their pain or responsible for many elements to this pain," Goldberg said. "By blocking the receptor, we stop the transmission of the pain and stop this circle, this circuit, in these patients. We would say 70 percent of our patients are pain-free at six months after the infusion or greatly pain-reduced."

The problem is that the infusions don't last and have to be repeated.

Related Resources:
RSDS.org