Principles & Practice of Pain Medicine > Part VI. Pain Therapies > A. Pharmacologic Treatments > Chapter 62. Adjuvant Analgesics Steven Macres, Steven Richeimer, and Paul Duran

Adjuvant Analgesics: Introduction

"Traditionally, the opioid analgesics and the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been the mainstay for primary analgesia. Numerous other agents, however, are available in our vast pharmacopeia that are beneficial as primary or adjuvant analgesics, particularly for chronic nonmalignant pain that is neuropathic in origin. This vast array of drugs includes the antidepressants, the anticonvulsants, systemic local anesthetics, psychostimulants, neuroleptics, autonomic drugs, calcium channel blockers, skeletal muscle relaxants, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, corticosteroids, capsaicin, cannabinoids, and various other miscellaneous agents (e.g., tramadol, lithium, magnesium, neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ligands, butyl-p-amino benzoate, bupivacaine microspheres, and SNX-111)...."