Different Types Of Medications To Treat Neck PainThere are various medications helpful for treating neck pain. Selection of the medication depends upon the type of pain whether it is bone and muscle pain or nerve pain. Bone and muscle pain (nociceptive):
Medications for this type of neck pain include non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, narcotic medications or opioids, muscle relaxants etc. Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSADs) are very commonly used to cure bone and muscle pain. NSADs include ibuprofen (advil), naproxen (aleve), celecoxib (celebrex). NSADs are very effective to control severe pain but have some side effects like hypertension, gastriointestinal bleeding, etc. In rare cases NSADs may cause stroke or lever attack. Narcotic medications are also widely used to control this type of pain. Narcotic is a greek word which means sleep. Currently narcotic drugs are known as opioids. They control pain by acting on brain relay system. Narcotic drugs include codeine (Tylenol #3), hydrocodone (vicodine lorcet zydone, norco, etc.), oxycodone (percocet oxy IR, roxycodone, oxycintine), morphin(avinza, mscontin, oramorph), femtanyl and methadone. Muscle relaxants include carisoprodol (soma), diazepam (valium), methocarbamol (robaxin), tizanidine (zanaflex), cyclobenzaprine (flexeril). After longer use of muscle relaxants they tend to be ineffective.carisoprodol may form habit Tylenol or paracetamol provide pain relief through central brain mechanism. Nerve pain (Neuropathic): These medications act by relaying signals of pain through the nervethey are also known as adjuvant medications or membrane stabilizers. Neuropathic drugs include tricyclic and herocyclic antidepressants, anticonvalsants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressants, selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, beta blockters alpha blockers, benzodiazepines, etc. Nerve pain is classified into peripheral and central. Neurotransmitters are specific transmitters to raly message from one nerve to another. They include Glutomate, Serotonin, noradrenalin, NMDA, dopamine, NMPA, GABA, endorphins, acetylcholone, etc. There are two ways of blocking the nerves for the pain in the nerve outside spinal cord. One is to bock the nerve with local anesthesia and other is directly blocking substance P or glutamate in primary neuron. Steroid medications: They are anti-inflammatory hormones to control severe neck pain. Some of the medications of this type are methylprednisolone (medrol), dexamethysone (decadrone), prednisolone (prednisone), etc. Steroids must be used with extreme care as they may produce problems like infection fluid retension swelling, etc. |