When Pain Medication Fails You...

This topic is important...and has not yet been addressed in this blog, so today is the day!

Modern medications are a true marvel. There are more drugs for more indications on the market now than we ever could have imagined even a decade ago. As the science of drug development evolves, the newer drugs seem to be more effective than their predecessors. At the same time, more is known about drug metabolism and the interactions drugs have with foods and other drugs. This has made medicinal therapy become increasingly more complex as the years pass.

At the same time, there are occasions when therapy with medication fails. Chemotherapy for cancer is one example; while much progress has been made, there are still many treatment failures. This is also the case in the realm of pain management. There are many medications out there--some new and some old standbys. But not every drug or drug combination for pain is successful 100% of the time in 100% of patients.

For this reason, it is very important to embrace a multi modal approach to pain management, including complementary and alternative practices. And until we can say that pain management is 100% successful in 100% of patients with chronic pain, there is much work to be done.

Sources: TheAustralian.com; Flickr

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