A benefit/risk assessment of existing therapeutic alternatives for the treatment of painful inflammatory conditions

Abstract

Pain remains the leading reason for which patients consult their doctors. Pain also motivates over-the-counter sales of analgesic medicines, to be taken orally or even transcutaneously. Prescription medicines usually follow attempts at self-medication that fail to achieve the desired results. Acute pain usually subsides spontaneously but medicines are needed until that occurs; in arthritic conditions--especially osteoarthritis--anti-inflammatory drugs work best in short-term administration for flares that aggravate chronic but tolerable pain. In cases of chronic pain that exceeds the level of easy tolerance, anti-inflammatory drugs can reduce the pain to tolerable levels more effectively than simple analgesics and narcotic combinations. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are among the most useful medicines providing an array of drugs that differ chiefly in time of onset of action, duration of action and persistence in the blood. The benefit they provide is pain amelioration; none is curative. The risks are well known and do not differ greatly among the drugs; unwanted gastrointestinal (GI) effects are the most common, but the skin, kidneys, liver and blood forming organs may also be affected. As the benefits are similar, when balancing risk and benefit it is important to: consider the cause and expected duration of pain, balance the risks (GI unwanted effects far outnumber others), assess the severity and likelihood of specific reactions, and consider the costs--not only of the medicines themselves but also those of treating untoward reactions. Thus NSAIDs number among the most successful therapeutic options of modern medicine and, as pain will continue to require intervention, will likely continue--at least as ancillary medications--even as more definitive treatments are developed. In addition, the target population, its characteristics and the duration and acceptance of the intervention need to be considered.