Abstract
The author reports a patient with postherpetic neuralgia who attempted suicide. A 79-year-old woman with no psychiatric disorders developed herpes zoster with severe pain, which made sleep difficult for her. The pain was not lessened by analgesics, and was so severe that the patient's daily living activities were impaired. She was referred to the author for the treatment of the pain. Side-effects lessened after a withdrawal from medication, but the pain remained difficult to control. The author recommended her to receive nerve blocks, but she wanted to be discharged. Then attempted suicide by taking an excess of prescribed medications on the first morning after discharge. The patient had showed no signs of depression or psychiatric symptoms during admission, and she was re-admitted. She then received cervical epidural and stellate ganglion blocks, and was evaluated and treated by a psychiatrist. Because patients with chronic severe pain sometimes tend to commit suicide, physicians taking care of them should keep this risk in mind.
