Some antidepressants and anti-convulsants have also been shown to increase patients’ threshold to pain.
These include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), opioids and corticosteroids. The range of anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents currently available all work to relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and slow down or stop tissue damage. ġ.1 Current drugs for the treatment of inflammation and pain and their major side effects Millions of people suffering from different types of painful inflammatory conditions wish to find effective interventions with fewer or no side effects. Moreover, they can cause disability, impairing the social function of people, reducing their quality of life and sometimes resulting in death. These diseases impose a huge social and economic burden on individual victims, their families, and societies as a whole.
Painful conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, colitis and hepatitis as well as other chronic diseases including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases are all conditions whose pathophysiology involves inflammation. Inflammation is a defensive mechanism but the complexity of events as well as the mediators released often result in the induction or aggravation of several disease conditions. It is a mechanism by which the body identifies and neutralises noxious stimuli by increasing the blood flow to the site of tissue injured. Inflammation is a complex defensive and protective response of living tissues to injury, irritation or infection which is accompanied by typical symptoms of pain, swelling, redness and fever.
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