New devices and drugs on the horizon in pain management

Chronic pain is a common condition that confers a substantial burden--physical, psychological, and economic--to individuals and society. There are a wide variety of interventions available for this condition. Chronic pain that is refractory to conventional treatment remains a challenge to physicians and patients alike. The purpose of this review is to describe recent developments for chronic pain management including pharmaceutical interventions and medical device therapy. For drug therapy, this review will focus on three classes of medications: antidepressants, opiates and antiepileptic medications. For device therapy, the utility of electrical stimulation to neural structures (dorsal column, peripheral nerve and deep brain) and intrathecal therapy for chronic pain will be described.