Capsaicin, a substance found in hot peppers, helps with neuropathic back pain and shingles. That's what a pepper patch study, published in the journal Pain Practice, showed.

The experiment involved 97 patients from Germany with various neurological manifestations: back pain, pain after surgery and trauma, as well as shingles. A total of 38 of them received pepper patch twice, and 59—at least three times. They were monitored for two years. The average time between patches was three months, with some patients receiving more than one patch at a time.

Pepper patch treatment was associated with a reduction in the dosage of opioids for pain relief. Two-thirds of patients experienced a decrease in pain intensity after several times of using the patch. However, those who received the patch three times had more pronounced relief.

Researchers believe that pepper patches have proven their effectiveness in treating neuropathic pain, but more research is needed to find the most effective treatment regimens.