Drugs able to prevent chronic pain

Abstract

Using drugs that follow anatomical pathways and act on receptors to treat acute pain and prevent its transformation into chronic pain is an appealing idea. The challenge consists of providing personalized treatment based on risk factors, pain and surgery type, and the type of rehabilitation program to minimize complications and optimize the pain treatment to prevent chronic pain. Clinical practice has started to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms and various neurochemical receptors involved in the transformation of acute pain into chronic pain. Unfortunately, the clinical reality differs greatly from the theory and no studies based on medical evidence show that using drugs to prevent chronic pain is a real possibility, nor what kinds of pain can actually be prevented with the use of preventive drugs. This article examines what kinds of pain are most commonly referred to chronic pain centers, looks at which drugs can be used to prevent chronic pain, and aims to establish a preventive treatment algorithm based on the type of postoperative pain. There is growing interest in providing therapeutic patient education, which consists of health professionals transferring knowledge to patients. In the model proposed in this article, therapeutic patient education acts as a connecting thread to different factors and enables patients to become more responsible for and proactive in the healing process. Prevention should be comprehensive, and not just pharmacologic.