New ways to cope with pain

For those of us who take care of patients, pain management is all the time a challenge. I rarely see a patient in my practice who isn’t in some type of pain. Unfortunately, what I exploit to treat pain often doesn’t work for each patient.

I used to be pleased to see an article in the most recent issue discussing among the latest developments in pain management. Yvonne D”Arcy, MS, RN, CRNP, CNS does a great job of discussing some of the recently developed drug delivery systems and applications in pain management. Her article “New Pain Medication Update” within the Controlling Pain column within the November issue discusses topical NSAIDs, dual-acting oral medications which have each opioid and nonopioid activity in a single medication, and a brand new extended-release medication, Embeda, which is an extended-release combination of morphine and has a core of naltrexone, an opioid reversal agent that’s activated when the medication is crushed, chewed, or dissolved. A reasonably good little abuse deterrent built right into the medication. The article also discusses a brand new capsaicin patch used to treat intractable pain from postherpetic neuralgia.

This article will undoubtedly offer you latest ideas on the best way to manage pain in your patients.