Treatment of sympathetically maintained pain with terazosin.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: alpha-adrenergic antagonists can be effective in the treatment of sympathetically maintained pain.

METHODS: Oral terazosin was prescribed to treat sympathetically maintained pain refractory to other therapies.

RESULTS: The authors describe a patient whose symptoms could not be controlled with commonly prescribed therapies, who obtained total relief of sympathetically maintained pain and vasospasm with terazosin, a new alpha 1 antagonist.

CONCLUSIONS: Terazosin is effective in the treatment of sympathetically maintained pain when given once daily because of a long elimination half-time and a long duration of action. This may encourage better patient compliance than do other alpha antagonists of shorter effective duration.