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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffPostherpetic neuralgia results when nerve fibers are damaged during an outbreak of shingles. Damaged nerves aren't able to send messages from your skin to your brain as they normally do. Instead, the messages become confused and exaggerated, causing chronic, often excruciating pain that may persist for months — or even years — in the area where shingles first occurred.
This complication of shingles occurs much more frequently in older adults. About 50 percent of adults older than 60 experience postherpetic neuralgia after shingles, whereas only 10 percent of all people with shingles do.
