PAT 20A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Drug Allergy, Subcutaneous Tissue, Arachidonic Acid
23 Oct 2013
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Meds that relieve pain without causing loss of consciousness (commonly referred to as painkillers) are considered analgesics. Several classes of analgesic, determined by the chemical structures and mechanisms of action of drugs. Focus of ch 11 is the drugs used to relieve moderate to severe pain: opioid analgesics. Acute pain is sudden (minutes to hours); usually sharp, localized; physiological response (sns: tachycardia, sweating, pallor, increased bp). Persistent pain (or chronic pain) is slow (days to months); long duration; dull, long-lasting aching. Often more challenging to treat because changes happen in the nervous system (tolerance) which require increasing drug doses. Pain can be further classified into its sources: Acute nociceptive pain is classified as either somatic or visceral. Somatic pain originates from skin, bone, muscle, connective tissue, or joints and is often described as localized and throbbing. Visceral pain originates from internal organs and can be well-localized or referred.
