Title:
New Approaches To Pain Relief Word Count:
509 Summary:
The main problem that people have had with pain relief drugs is that, in large enough or potent enough doses, the numbness can be a problem. New research is being conducted to avoid that problem, mainly by figuring out how to suppress the pain reaction without suppressing other physical reactions. So far, there has been some success, but further testing and refinement are still needed.
Keywords: pain relief
Article Body:
Modern medicines that provide pain relief are considered to be wonderful little things, often providing a much needed respite from pain. However, it is a known fact that the more pain you feel, the more pain relief medications you’re going to need. Certainly, you do have the option of using more potent medication, such as upgrading from Tramadol to morphine, but for most cases, this is not an option. The standard is that when the pain gets worse, the patient has to pop a few more pills. The problem with this approach, and with using a more potent pain killer, is that the body eventually starts to feel a general sense of numbness because of the medication. In high enough doses, the body may even fall asleep or become unconscious due to the sheer amount of pain killer in the bloodstream.
Of course, there may be another way to go about this situation. The fact is, most people find the numbness and the
possibility of becoming unconscious to be a bit more than unsettling. It can be a severe annoyance in some cases, with the potential to become threatening if the person needs to engage in activities that require alertness. Science has recognized this flaw in the design of pain relief medication, but there has been little progress by way of finding an alternative method. However, medical science is aware that the nerves and receptors that signal the pain reaction are distinct and separate from the nerves and receptors that process other sensations. Therefore, there should be a way to suppress the pain reaction without having to suppress every other reaction.
There is an experimental treatment currently being used that promises to be able to do that, but there is a catch. According to the research team, it only works if an injection of hot pepper spice is made prior to the use of the experimental pain relief compound. This is a negative factor because the injection has been known to cause effects ranging from mild
unpleasantness to actual pain. Researchers are still trying to find a way to circumvent that issue, eliminating the current problem of having to introduce a painful compound into the body before administering something to dull it. However, despite the ˆhigh price˜ of this experiment, there have been positive results. For example, test subjects could feel a pinprick as a regular sensation, without associating it with pain.
as in post-surgical therapy. For example, most anesthetics make the patient fall asleep or become immobilized, which makes it a frightening situation if the patient awakens during the procedure and is unable to inform the doctors that he feels
everything they’re doing. If the researchers can perfect their technique, then the patient would be awake during the procedure, but would feel nothing and would not be fully immobilized.
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