[Drug therapy of pain]

Pain represents the most frequent complaint for which patients ask for medical help. Successful treatment of acute and chronic pain syndromes largely depends on the knowledge and the therapy of the underlying disease process and on the rational use of analgesics, such as the nonnarcotic analgesic-antipyretics, the anti-inflammatory agents and the opioid analgesics. In addition, so-called 'adjuvant' analgesics of different chemical structures can be used in special clinical conditions to increase the efficacy of the common analgesics. For optimal therapy, the selection and dosing of a specific agent has to be tailored to the individual needs of the patient. For this purpose it is important to follow some general principles of pain management and to consider the relevant pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of the various analgesics. This overview summarizes the most important pharmacological properties of the widely used analgetic drugs, with special emphasis on their risk-benefit ratio in various clinical situations.