For those of us caring for patients, pain management is always an issue. I rarely see patients in my practice who aren't experiencing some sort of pain issue. Unfortunately, many times what I use to manage pain doesn't work for every patient.

I was glad to see in the latest issue of Nursing2010, an article addressing some of the new advances in pain management. Yvonne D"Arcy, MS, RN, CRNP, CNS does a great job discussing some of the recently developed drug delivery systems and applications for pain control. Her article, "An update on new pain medications," in the Controlling Pain column in the Nursing2010 November issue reviews topical NSAIDS, double-action oral medications that have both opioid and non-opioid activity in one drug, and a new extended release medication, Embeda, which is a combination of an extended release morphine and has a core of naltrexone, an opioid reversal agent that is activated if the drug is crushed, chewed, or dissolved. Quite a nice little abuse deterrent built right into the drug. The article also discusses a new capsaicin patch used to treat intractable pain from postherpetic neuralgia.

Without a doubt, this article will give you some new ideas to help manage your patients' pain. 

Posted by Anne Dabrow Woods, MSN, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC