THE RELIEF OF TIC DOULOUREUX WITH STILBAMIDINE

Abstract

A review of the properties of stilbamidine (4:4′ stilbenedicarboxamidine) and observation of patients treated for various diseases with the drug revealed that its late chronic toxicity was confined to an unusual neuropathy. The progressive sensory changes of paresthesia, hypalgesia and anesthesia, usually confined to the face, were noted two to five months after a course of stilbamidine.^{1, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 16} Napier and Sen Gupta¹³ found a subjective disturbance of sensation over various distributions of the fifth cranial nerves. They suggested that the lesion was in the sensory nucleus of the trigeminal nerve in the pons. Collard and