Analgesia - Nonaddictive Analgesics, Mechanism Of Nonaddictive Analgesics, Addictive Analgesics, Mechanism Of Addictive Analgesics, Development Of New Analgesics
pain drugs loss anesthesia
Analgesia is the loss of pain without the loss of consciousness.
Techniques for controlling and relieving pain include acupuncture, anesthesia, hypnosis, biofeedback, and the use of analgesic drugs. Acupuncture is the ancient Chinese practice of inserting fine needles along certain pathways of the body and is used to relieve pain, especially in surgery, and to cure disease. In Western medicine the discovery of ether was a landmark in the development of anesthesia. Other techniques for pain control include electrical stimulation of the skin, massage, and stress-management therapy.
Analgesia is of primary importance for the treatment of injury or illness. The main agents for accomplishing analgesia in medical practice are analgesic drugs. These fall into two main categories: addictive and nonaddictive. Nonaddictive analgesics are generally used for treating moderate to severe pain and can be purchased without a prescription as over-the-counter drugs. More powerful analgesics have the potential for addiction and other undesirable side effects. They are usually used in hospitals or prescribed for relief from severe pain.
Presently, efforts are underway to develop powerful nonaddictive pain-relieving drugs. In order to improve the effectiveness and minimize the harm of analgesic drugs, pharmacological research has focused on the mechanism of how analgesics accomplish the task of pain relief. Mechanism in this context means the way the drug works in the body to accomplish its results.
Additional Topics
While sold under many different brand names, the three main nonaddictive analgesics are aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen. Aspirin was first synthesized in 1853 from vinegar and salicylic acid (acetylsalicylic acid). It is a member of the salicin family, which is a bitter white chemical found in willow bark and leaves. The analgesic qualities of willow bark were known to the ancient Greeks and…
Pain that is caused by trauma (injury) in the body sets off the creation of a chemical called prostaglandin. The initial pain is caused by the nerve impulse that relays the injury message to the brain. According to the prostaglandin theory, the pain that is felt afterward is due to the prostaglandin at the site of the injury sending pain messages to the spinal cord, which then transmits these mess…
The treatment of severe pain, like pain that accompanies heart attack, kidney stones, gallstones, or terminal cancer, requires the use of prescription medicines that are far more potent than nonprescription drugs. Morphine, a drug derived from opium, has a long history of effective relief of severe pain, but it also is addictive and has dangerous side effects. Morphine and other drugs like it are …
The first phase in the development of new analgesics came with the development of narcotic blockers used to help drug addicts who overdose on a narcotic. Since these drugs have the ability to block the effects of morphine, they are called antagonists. They do not, however, provide any pain relief. A second generation of narcotic antagonists are called agonist-antagonist analgesics. An agonist drug…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments