The combination of morphine and minocycline may be a good treatment for intractable post-herpetic neuralgia.

Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a devastating complication of shingles. The treatment of PHN with traditional pharmaceutical agents has various side effects. Therefore, the treatment of intractable PHN is often very time consuming, mainly because the available treatments often lead to intolerable side effects before the efficient dose can be reached.