Q: 53 year old male is in ICU recovering from DKA. Patient informed you that he has been prescribed an anti-hypertensive in topical form as a treatment for his pain from diabetic neuropathy. He prefers to use the same. Which one it could be?

Answer: Clonidine

Recently one study showed that clonidine could be an effective agent to use as a treatment to relieve pain from diabetic neuropathy.




Reference:

Campbell, CM; Kipnes, MS; Stouch, BC; Brady, KL; Kelly, M; Schmidt, WK; Petersen, KL; Rowbotham, MC; Campbell, JN (September 2012). "Randomized control trial of topical clonidine for treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy"  -. Pain 153 (9): 1815–1823.