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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Are opiods, dissociatives, and NSAIDs the only type of pain killers?

A

Aetherius Rimor

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
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I have a friend in her 20s suffering from arthritis in the knees.

Opiods even in small doses make her nauseous and she will continuously throw up for hours. She was prescribed tramadol once, but ended up getting addicted quickly and suffering withdrawal effects from it, so she stopped using it.

Dissociative pain killers obviously aren't an option willing to be considered.

She's also tried tylenol, aleve, ibuprofen, aspirin... and none of them help the pain in safe doses.

Are there any other classes of pain killers available other than those three types? Until she can afford to see a specialist, she just relies on her ambien or xanax to help her sleep at night.

She already takes Glucosamine and MSM, is there anything else to assist with her condition?
 
There are also cannabinoid analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs, many of them synthetic and widely available to the general public. They can be applied in a variety of fashions, from vaporization, to ingestion, and even transdermal application with a DMSO solution. There are many of them out there, so you guys will have to do your own research to know what is both available to you and what would be effective.
 
Yes, there are multiple medicines that help with pain that arent opiates, dissociatives, apap or nsaids. For example, there are muscle relaxers like major/minorbarbiturates such as some benzodiazepines (nitrazepam, diazepam, temazepam, ect..), quualudes like fiorcet/phenobabitol(sp?), and carisoprodol, in addition to other muscle relaxers like skelaxin, zanaflex, ect... Certain SNRIs provide pain relief and muscle relaxation aswell such as flexeril , amiltryptamine, and cymbalta. Sedative antihistamines (usually first-generation) with dual-mode actions(multiple pharmacological actions) also provide analgesia utilized in conjunction with opiates such as hydroxyzine(5ht-2a antagonism, sedative antihistamine, ...), orphenadrine (antihistamine, muscle relaxer, nmda-antagonism,ect..), flexeril (sedating antihistamine, snri, muscle relaxer, ect...), amiltryptamine (snri, slight muscle relaxer, weak nmda-antagonism, sedating antihistamine, ect..), and promethazine.

Pregabalin/gabapentin, novel and excellent pain medication, provides anxiolysis, and analgesia synergism with opiates. These medications and SNRIs work most effeftively on nerve associated pain such as fibromyalgia. Marihuana is also an awesome analgesic, one of my favorites and one of the most efficient analgesics IMO/IME for all types of pain. In addition, marijuana definitely aides opiates at relieving pain by boosting opiate-induced analgsia via synergism.

Finally, capsaicin's pain-relieving effects has potential; scientists are currently researching the mode-of-action behind capsaicin's analgesic effects. Capsaicin is found in spicy foods, i.e. chili peppers.

Oh yah some psychedelics have reduce migraines and cluster head aches like mushrooms (psilocybin)
 
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Much like LaCster mentioned, many drugs possess analgesic properties, anti-convulsants, anti-histamines, cannabinoids, opioids, NMDA antagonists, COX inhibitors, local anesthetics (lidocaine, cocaine) and quite many more.
 
Thank you IaCster, this definitely gives us some ideas to look into. Trying to find something to help her with the pain has been difficult, and I've been worried about her overdosing on NSAIDs since nothing else has worked.

I'll look into these other ideas, and maybe she can talk to a general practitioner rather than a specialist about those options.
 
Tell her not to overdose the NSAIDs if she is doing it because it is completely useless. They will not provide more pain relief the more pills you take.

If she is so sensitive to opiates, can't she just cut the dosage? I mean even the weakest dose can always easily be cut in half. It just sounds like she needs to take less. Of course she will become addicted to the meds but if she needs them for pain I do not really see any other option if she can't live without meds. Nearly all pain meds that work are addictive.
 
Chromophobia said:
Much like LaCster mentioned, many drugs possess analgesic properties, anti-convulsants, anti-histamines, cannabinoids, opioids, NMDA antagonists, COX inhibitors, local anesthetics (lidocaine, cocaine) and quite many more.
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I forgot about cocaine, lidocaine, and other anesthetics ...good point
 
She really needs to look into getting a compound cream made for her specific needs. Topical creams work incredibly well with arthritis and are often overlooked because people generally assume the pills will be stronger. That is the case sometimes, but with joint pain, a good pharmaceutical grade topical cream does wonders.

They can have anti inflammatory, nerve blockers, muscle relaxers, analgesics, and ketamine hcl all in one cream that goes right through the skin and works immediately.
 
A medication doesn't have to be an analgesic by definition to be capable of producing analgesia, as represented by the above posts.

Even diazepam can be prescribed for pain relief.
 
Amen to Bob Law. I am pumped to read that article. I swore when I was in terrible pain from Lyme my Adderall/Dexedrine prescription worked wonders for my pain it was almost non existent ! I asked my doctor who is very in tune but wasn't aware of the chemistry behind it. While it might be even harder to get an amphetamine prescription then a opiate prescription the pain relief is amazing.
 
Another thing sometimes considered for extremely debilitating arthritis is cortisone or prednisone orally. They are steroidal so one must be careful with dose and duration of use. Best under the supervision of a medical professional. However, they have incredible anti inflammatory effect.
 
Crashing said:
She really needs to look into getting a compound cream made for her specific needs. Topical creams work incredibly well with arthritis and are often overlooked because people generally assume the pills will be stronger. That is the case sometimes, but with joint pain, a good pharmaceutical grade topical cream does wonders.

They can have anti inflammatory, nerve blockers, muscle relaxers, analgesics, and ketamine hcl all in one cream that goes right through the skin and works immediately.
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Thanks for this idea, I've found some OTC stuff I don't think she's tried yet. Maybe these will work. Are there any prescription only creams she might be able to discuss with her doctor if the OTC ones don't work?

Bob Loblaw said:
Surprisingly enough, amphetamine is just as potent an analgesic as morphine.

E.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6468501
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Hah, that reminds me, I knew a guy once who was in construction for like 15 or so years and developed really bad back problems. He didn't do any drugs but drink alcohol, however he would take MDMA on occasion when his back pain got really bad and said it got rid of it.

Always wondered if it was just the mind being distracted from the pain or if it was actually reducing the pain. Very interesting!

Toz said:
Tell her not to overdose the NSAIDs if she is doing it because it is completely useless. They will not provide more pain relief the more pills you take.

If she is so sensitive to opiates, can't she just cut the dosage? I mean even the weakest dose can always easily be cut in half. It just sounds like she needs to take less. Of course she will become addicted to the meds but if she needs them for pain I do not really see any other option if she can't live without meds. Nearly all pain meds that work are addictive.
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5mg of hydrocodone is about the most she can take without throwing up, and she'll still get nauseous at 2.5mg so she'll only even consider that if the knee pain is unbearable. Just day to day activity though it's constant pain. On a typical day, 880mg of aleve will get rid of most of the pain, and she knows not to do that too much, Just scares me since she's only 95 pounds and I don't want her to OD on it or destroy her liver.

crazycatman said:
If her knees are really bad it may be time to replace them.
Click to expand...

No shit, we've joked about that.

Thanks everyone for the advice, and also I really was curious about pain killers in general. So thanks for all the answers, whether they were arthritis specific or an answer to pain killers in general!
 
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>No shit, we've joked about that.
Sorry if it came out wrong, but if that option is available to her, she should seriously look into it.
 
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