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What Are the Treatments?

No treatment has yet been discovered to prevent or halt shingles, and although steps can be taken to shorten its duration, frequently the virus must simply run its course. Because the pain following shingles is difficult to manage and can last so long — months or, in rare cases, years — the best approach is early and immediate treatment. Also, early medical attention may prevent or reduce the scarring that shingles can cause.

Conventional Medicine

Your doctor may suggest medications to reduce inflammation and help you cope with the pain. Painkillers such as aspirin or acetaminophen can alleviate mild pain. Anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen(Motrin) or naproxen(Aleve) are often helpful for pain also. Acyclovir, an antiviral drug, may help stop progression of the rash, especially if used early in the course of the breakout of blisters. Similar drugs, such as Valtrex or Famvir, can also be used. The use of these drugs may also help stave off the painful after-effects of shingles known as postherpetic neuralgia. Use of steroids to reduce inflammation and potentially postherpetic neuralgia is controversial. Benzoin, available over the counter, may protect irritated skin when applied to unbroken lesions. If the area becomes infected by bacteria, antibiotics can keep the infection under control. For the pain that lingers after lesions have healed, your doctor may prescribe a tricyclic antidepressant or a seizure medicine, which may help relieve pain. Depression may also occur with the onset of shingles or as a result of the lingering pain.

At-Home Remedies

• Keep the affected area clean, dry, and exposed to air (without clothes covering it) as much as possible. Don't scratch or burst the blisters. If the pain keeps you from sleeping, snugly binding the area with an elastic sports bandage may help.
• For the first three or four days, try ice for 10 minutes on, 5 minutes off, every few hours. Later, apply cool, wet compresses soaked in aluminum acetate, available over the counter in the form of astringent solution, powder packets or effervescent tablets.
• To desensitize nerve endings, crush two aspirin, mix them with 2 tablespoons rubbing alcohol and apply the paste to the blisters three times a day.
• To cut down on itching, ask your pharmacist to mix 78% calamine lotion with 20% rubbing alcohol, 1% phenol, and 1% menthol. You can apply this mixture continuously until your blisters scab over. Other remedies for itching include frequent applications of vitamin E oil or gel from the aloe vera plant. Dusting colloidal oatmeal powder where clothes rub against your skin or taking a warm(not hot) bath with colloidal oatmeal may reduce pain.

How Can I Prevent It?

Because shingles comes on suddenly, with scarcely any warning, there is little you can do in the way of prevention, but your doctor may be able to avert some of the pain that follows. Some pain experts have had success using a nerve block during the acute phase of the disease. Administered on an outpatient basis in a hospital to deaden pain and shrink inflammation at the nerve root, a nerve block may act as a preemptive strike against later development of postherpetic neuralgia.

Most recently, scientists and researchers have been developing a vaccine against shingles, although none is commercially available yet. However, the vaccine used to prevent chicken pox in children has been shown to reduce the incidence and duration of a shingles outbreak and the occurrence of postherpetic neuralgia pain in some people.