What You Should Know About Medicines/Analgesics

An analgesic is a medicine used to relieve pain. The body of analgesic knowledge is vast and complex. Morever it is ever changing with an increasing array of new molecules and drugs.

Examples of Analgesics:

1. Flexin Continus tablets Useful in Osteoarthritis and Painful Musculoskeletal disorders

2. Codafen Continus tablets Useful in Dental pain, post-operative pain, dysmenorrhea

Pain relief has traditionally relied on three main groups of drugs:

• Opioids, which reduce pain awareness in the brain, but don't change the pain
• Local anaesthetics, which confuse the nerves sending pain signals to the brain
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which reduce the inflammation **which leads to pain

Researchers continue to search for new ways of using these traditional drugs. (a) Varying the routes of administration.

• The oral route is the most common, but means the medication has to be swallowed, absorbed into the body, and pass the liver before it can work.
• Transdermal Opioids (putting cream or patches on the skin) is an advantage for continuous pain treatment, like cancer pain or severe arthritis, and one formulation may last 72-80 hours, reducing medication administration errors and side effects
• Injectable pain medication is frequently used for areas that allow surgery or other pain relief when the entire body does not need to be involved, like fixing a tooth at the dentist, or sewing a laceration closed on an arm.

(b) Use of some different delivery formulations. (c) Changing the species to which they may be given.

Research has also brought in various new compounds offer improved pain relief and reduction in side effects.