New Aspects of Pain Treatment with OTC Analgesics

Overview

Acute clinical pain is a result of release of various inflammatory mediators which cause sensitisation of the pain receptors and decrease the threshold for pain. Prostaglandin are the most important of these mediators. Headache, myalgia, toothache and dysmenorrhoea are the most frequent types of clinical pain for which OTC analgesics are recommended. Patients desire such OTC analgesics which are free of toxic effects and which ensure fast and relatively long-lasting relieve of pain. Aspirin, ibuprofen naproxen and diclofenac belong between the most powerful agents for pain relieve caused by inflammation. On the contrary to aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac are bound with higher affinity to COX-2, thus in analgesic doses they do not influence the activity of COX-1, and consequently their gastroin- testinal tolerance is significantly improved. For a long time used ibuprofen belongs amongst the best tolerated analgesics. Diclofenac is another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) which is globally the most frequently prescribed analgesics at present. Finally naproxen is a one of the newer NSAIDs which effect persists a longer time, compered with the agents described above and which analgesic efficacy is very appreciate by patients. With the exception of aspirin, other NSAIDs mentioned here are in analgesic indications practically free of side effects and therefore can be recommended even in patients with the history of known gastrointestinal sensitivity.

Key words:
pain treatment - OTC analgesics.