This article is one in a series on Medications for Pain…  What are your choices?  How do various medications work?  What are the pros and cons?  How about side effects?

Today is the last article in this series, and we’ll look at 2 promising advances in research for pain.

1. The first advance is studying multiple medications together.  As you might know all too well, it’s usually not a single medication alone which helps in chronic pain.  Often patients use 2, 3, or even more medications together.  However, most research studies look at only 1 medication at a time.  While this makes studies simpler to conduct and the results easier to interpret, it doesn’t give us the best knowledge of how to combine medications for pain management.

Studies looking at more than 1 medication at a time are beginning to be published.  Yeah!!  Here’s an example:

Lamotrigine in Combination with Other Medications for Neuropathic Pain.  This study looked at adding lamotrigine (an anti-seizure medication) to either Neurontin, a tricycle antidepressant, or another non-narcotic medication, in patients whose pain wasn’t well controlled with only 1 medication.  The results showed that the addition of Lamotrigine didn’t help with pain.

This is a real-world scenario, and the result is helpful to doctors to plan what to do in the all-too-common situation of 1 medication not helping enough.

As more studies are done, we’ll know better:

• what drugs to use together
• in what order to prescribe them
• what dosages to use together

This will be great for the advancement of pain management!

(Study is:  Silver M, Blum D, Grainger J, Hammer A, Quessy S, “Double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of lamotrigine in combination with other medications for neuropathic pain.”  Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Vol 34, 2007, 446-454.)

2. The second advance is medications being studied specifically to treat pain and for particular pain disorders.  National research organizations (eg NIH) as well as pharmaceutical companies are directing more dollars towards the study of pain.  This will create advances in pain medicine – more options and quicker development of medication options.  As well, particular pain disorders are being researched, an example being fibromyalgia.  This has gone from a questionable diagnosis to multiple medications being FDA-approved to treat it.  A great advance in a relatively short period of time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series and that the information has been helpful to you.  Starting next Monday, in getting into the spirit of the holidays, we’ll have gift give-aways.  I hope to see you back to visit!

“Medication for Pain” series:

1. Medication for Pain Series 2009
2. Aspirin, Motrin and NSAIDS
3. Anticonvulsants
4. Antidepressants
5. Anesthetics
6. NMDA receptor antagonists (e.g. Ketamine)
7. Muscle relaxants
8. Blood Pressure Medication
9. Narcotics (Opiates)
10. Anti-Psychotics
11. Medication Advances Coming Soon
12. Research Advances