[The hospital pharmacist and pain management]

In the field of pain control, the aim of the hospital pharmacist is to establish in cooperation with clinicians the guidelines allowing an optimal pharmacological management of pain. This difficulty is increased by age or resistance to treatment condition. In such case, the hospital may encourage clinical research programs incitating to develop knowledge and extend the availability of new drugs as it is the case for opioid rotation. Hospital pharmacis are also competent in pharmacokinetics, a fruitful research objective in the field of pain control. Thus, morphine metabolite studies and efficacy versus inefficacy parameters of drug treatments are very useful for a complete understanding of opioid pharmacology. Hospitals may encourage new therapeutic approaches optimizing clinical outcomes, minimizing costs and risks.