Chronic Pain:Drugs: Relief and Addiction

In the wake of the OxyContin scandal, drug companies are in a race to make it more difficult to tamper with prescription narcotics. In August, the Food and Drug Administration decided to give priority review to a version of oxycodone (the active compound in OxyContin) called Remoxy, which resists crushing, injecting, and dissolving in alcohol—all techniques used by street addicts to get a rapid high from what is supposed to be a slow-release drug. Getting tamper-resistant drugs to market will be a cash cow for the pharmaceutical industry, but it's not just companies who will benefit. If the drugs can cut the dangers and stigma of possessing legitimate-use narcotics in high-risk cities, the real beneficiaries will be patients in pain...  Read More

A third of Americans over 65 use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs every day, according to the American Pain Foundation. For the chronic pain patient, it's critical to understand how these basic drugs in the war on pain do their job, when they can cause problems, and how to use them safely...  Read More

Chronic pain, on its own, can interfere with a healthy sex life, but sometimes the drugs that patients rely on to relieve their pain are the problem. Many painkilling medications can cause physiological changes that affect sexual functioning...  Read More