John Claude Krusz, Ph.D., M.D.
ANODYNE Headache and PainCare
5446 Glen Lakes Drive
Dallas, TX 75231
214-750-6664
http://anodynepaincare.org/Clinic_Staff.htm
Transcript: How botulinum toxins work
When we use the botulinum toxins, we tend to want to be cost-effective because they are expensive. They are not officially approved by any medical or drug plans for anything that has to do with pain indications yet.
The toxin takes a week or two to sort of lock in and begin working so it is not the case that the person wakes up the next day and has very little pain or something that they might get with oral medication. Typically a week or two is not unusual and sometimes week number three is be better than week number two and week number four is better than week number three on a gradual decline in discomfort and pain. Sometimes we’ve had results lasting as long as eight months before the return of symptoms. Sometimes you get two to three months. We sort of aim for that figure because that’s a reasonable amount of pain relief and will often allow less usage of the person’s daily pain medication.