Pain Medication Management

Pain medicines can be invaluable for conditions ranging from fibromyalgia and arthritis to cancer and neuropathy. Ravi Panjabi, MD, and his team at Advanced Pain Management in Castro Valley, California, offer expert pain medication management to ensure you get the maximum help from your drugs. They also monitor you for unpleasant and dangerous side effects. Call Advanced Pain Management to learn more about pain medication management’s benefits, or use the online scheduling tool to request an appointment.

What is medication management?

Medication management is an ongoing process that involves seeing your health care provider regularly to review your prescriptions.

Drugs are often vital for managing numerous medical conditions, from mental health disorders to heart disease. Patients often have to take medications long-term and may require multiple drugs for various issues, posing some potential problems.

First, medications can cause side effects — unpleasant symptoms such as headaches and nausea. Many are tolerable, but others are difficult to live with, and some are dangerous. Second, medicines can affect each other, sometimes increasing or decreasing one’s effects, or creating toxic combinations.

In addition, it’s important to ensure that the drugs you take have optimal benefits. Medication management ensures your medicines are safe, effective, and work well.

What pain medications might I need?

The Advanced Pain Management team uses several kinds of medications to treat pain, whether in the back, knee, or other areas. These include:

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

Some NSAIDs, like ibuprofen, are available over-the-counter, while others are prescription only.

Corticosteroids

Steroid medicines effectively reduce inflammation, but when taken orally, can cause side effects like gastrointestinal bleeding. In pain management, clinicians usually administer steroids by injection directly to the source of pain.

Muscle relaxants

Muscle relaxant medicines reduce muscle spasms.

Antidepressants

Tricyclic antidepressants are often effective for controlling nerve pain. Recent research shows that selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are also helpful for chronic pain.

Anti-seizure medications

Antiseizure medication is an effective nerve pain treatment. One, gabapentin, is particularly helpful for peripheral neuropathy.

Does pain medication management include opioid drugs?

Opioids are medications based on morphine — the most potent painkiller. They’re also closely related to the illegal drug heroin. Common opioids include codeine, oxycodone, and hydromorphone.

Opioids are controversial because they are highly addictive and may cause serious side effects. They’re often very effective at reducing moderate to severe acute pain; however, for many chronic pain patients, the effects lessen if they take opioids for long periods. Their body gets used to the drug, so they need more to achieve the same impact.

For these reasons, the Advanced Pain Management team only uses opioids when other treatments are ineffective. They also carefully manage your medications to ensure you don’t develop dangerous side effects or an addiction.

To arrange a pain medication management review, call Advanced Pain Management today or book an appointment using the online scheduling feature.