[Non-opioid and opioid medication in neuropathic pain]

Treatment of neuropathic pain is difficult despite new treatments and there is no single treatment that Works for all conditions and their underlying mechanisms. Given the increasing evidence for effective treatments of neuropathic pain, it is important for the clinician to know which drugs are most effective neuropathic pain relieving pain and associated with the fewest adverse effects and there is a need for an evidence-based algorithm to treat neuropathic pain conditions. Ideally, the evidence for the non-opioids and opioids choices in such an algorithm would be based on direct comparisons of one drug with another, for both efficacy and side effects. There are very few such direct comparisons available.