Description

Collective knowledge of the origins and pharmacology of pain are evolving rapidly, providing increased hope for better pain management and a far greater quality of life for patients worldwide. However, there are few works dedicated to guiding primary care practitioners and clinical researchers through the use of adjuvant analgesics. Part of the Oxford American Pain Library, Adjuvant Analgesics provides a detailed discussion of the various classes of these drugs including antidepressants and anticonvulsants, cannabinoids, topical analgesics, and local anesthetics. Chapters cover a basic introduction to adjuvant analgesics for pain control, appropriate clinical applications of the various drug classes in the management of common pain problems, and on drug-drug interactions between adjuvant analgesics and traditional analgesics. Important pain entities such as acute postoperative, cancer-related, neuropathic pain, and fibromyalgia are addressed, filling an important gap in today's medical literature.