What are co-analgesic drugs?!
Question: What are co-analgesic drugs and give examples please?
Answers: What are co-analgesic drugs and give examples please?
Coanalgesic, or adjuvant drugs, are medications whose primary indication is for a purpose other than pain relief, but that demonstrate some analgesic effects. Antidepressants, anticonvulsants, corticosteroids, and other drugs may be used as coanalgesics. Coanalgesics may be used in addition to other analgesics or alone as primary treatment for specific painful conditions. Most experience with coanalgesics has been in the treatment of chronic pain, but adjuvant analgesics are increasingly being used to treat acute pain.
An opioid analgesic should be introduced and titrated to a maximum effect before a coanalgesic is added to the pain management regimen. The reason for this is that when both drugs are introduced together, the risk of toxicity is increased and it may be difficult to determine which drug is responsible for producing analgesia or for causing side effects. Fewer patients experience pain relief from coanalgesics than from opioid analgesics. So Opium is one example.... Most coanalgesics have a slower onset of analgesic action:
because the coanalgesic drug must accumulate before it provides pain relief, and/or because therapy is initiated at low doses to avoid side effects.