Pain Medication

[Guest guest]

Sandy,

I understand that you have many questions regarding pain medication.

It can be very confusing. There is an excellent reosurce availqable

for you to download and take to your physician to discuss the options.

It is called " Medications & Chronic Pain Supplement 2005 " and is put

out by the American Chronic Pain Association. It can be located at

www.theacpa.org, but more specifically at:

http://www.theacpa.org/documents/ACPA%20Meds%202005%20SDSF.pdf

This supplement is updated annually and includes a discussion of all

the medications used to treat pain. Here is the table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Medications and Chronic Pain

3. How Medications Can Help

4. How Medications Can Harm

5. Advice from the ACPA

6. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

7. Pain in Older Persons

8. Off-Label Medication Use

9. Over-The-Counter (OTC) Pain Relievers

10. The Safety of OTC Medications

11. Chronic Pain Classification

12. Medications used for Chronic Pain

13. Analgesics: Non-Opioid Pain Relievers

14. COX-2 Inhibitors

15. Non-Opioid Analgesic Drugs and Their Uses

16. Opioid Analgesics

17. Opioid Side Effects

18. The Opioid Dilemma

19. Defining the Terms

20. Opioids and the Goals of Pain Management

21. Evaluating Opioid Use

22. Opioid Analgesics: Partial Agonists/Antagonists

22. Opioid Analgesics: Partial Agonists/Antagonists

23. Hybrid Prescription Pain Drugs

24. Antidepressants

25. How Antidepressants May Help

26. Antidepressant Side Effects

27. Benefits of Antidepressants in Chronic Pain

28. Pain States That May Respond To Antidepressants

29. Antidepressants Commonly Used for Chronic Pain

30. Anticonvulsants or Antiepileptic Drugs

31. Pain States That May Respond to Anticonvulsants

32. Anticonvulsants Used in Chronic Pain

33. Oral Anti-Arrhythmics With Local Anesthetic Properties

34. Topical Pain Relievers

35. Sedatives, Anti-Anxiety Medications, & Tranquilizers

36. Muscle Relaxants

37. Drugs Used as Muscle Relaxants in Chronic Pain

38. Anti-Psychotics

39. Anti-Hypertensives

40. Botulinum Toxin

41. NMDA Inhibitors

42. Activating Medications (central nervous system stimulants)

43. Herbal Medicines

44. Migraine Headaches

45. Alcohol

46. Illicit Drugs & Marijuana

47. Conclusion

48. References on the Internet

ACPA permits you to print this supplement for personal use, otherwise

it is copyrighted, so I cannot place it on the website. I will contact

them and see if the PAI can be granted permission to make copies for

our members who do not have computer access.

Karyn , RN

Executive Director, PAI