Analgesics
Cosmetic Surgery - Plastic Surgery - Aesthetic Medicine - Reconstructive Surgery
Analgesics (painkillers) are substances that make a living being insensitive to pain. Each patient has an individual reaction to pain depending on his or her state of mind and genetic factors. Pains also occur in multiple locations and are of differ greatly in nature and intensity. Similarly the analgesic effect of a drug will not be exactly the same from one individual to another.
Pain medicines are classified according to their principal site of action: peripheral and central analgesics.
Peripheral analgesics act on pain receptors located on sensory nerve endings. Peripheral analgesics are administered orally (usually), are not addictive and cause little or no allergic reactions (serious or otherwise).
Within this peripheral type of analgesics we find: paracetamol (analgesic and antipyretic), acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin (analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory), the powerful anti-inflammatories such as phenylbutazone, indomethacin and ketoprofen. Other molecules are part of the peripheral analgesics group and offer greater or lesser degrees of analgesic and anti-inflammatory action.
Central analgesics act directly on the spinal cord and decrease the intensity of painful sensory nerve impulses by acting through the release of endogenous neuropeptides such as enkephalins and other neurons. Morphine binds to the same receptors as the enkephalins, in this way achieving a similar analgesic effect.
In the group of central analgesics we can find the Ťopiates" group with their risk of physical and psychological dependency in the event of continuous treatment. These drugs are listed as Category B narcotics.
These central analgesics are used in anaesthesia, combined with hypnotics to reduce the patient's responsiveness to pain.
The fight against pain is multifaceted and involves analgesics, drugs directly treating the cause of the disease and physical treatments for the purpose of body rehabilitation (physiotherapy, etc.). It should not be forgotten either that in relation to pain, the placebo effect has a significant role to play.