[Side effects of pain therapy : Sufficient analgesia without unnecessary complications]

Interventions of acute and chronic pain treatment are associated with risks. Therefore, it is important to know about treatment side effects in order to avoid unnecessary complications and therapy interruption. This knowledge, however, is not to prevent/abandon this treatment altogether. Rather, it is intended to use pain treatment interventions rationally. The following article is to deepen the knowledge of unintended effects of analgetic treatments. Moreover, it will help find an optimal pain therapy in terms of efficacy and tolerable risks as well as limitations. Nonopiates have organ toxic side effects. It is imperative to observe the maximum daily dose and comorbidity. Opioids can have either central or peripheral side effects. Patients suffer, among others, from addiction, breath depression, and tolerance as well as from obstipation, concentration disorders, and an increased risk of falling. Psychiatric drugs, corticosteroids, ketamine, bisphosphonates, and lidocaine are co-analgetics. Besides adverse effects connected to their specific substances, these drugs have partially additive effects on complications of classic analgetics (e. g., gastrointestinal ulceration, renal insufficiency, constipation, and concentration deficits). Invasive procedures (such as epidural catheter) call for an interdisciplinary collaboration. To know about unintended effects helps to avoid dramatic complications (e. g., paraplegia). A sufficient pain therapy, therefore, is more than sufficient analgesia. It also includes the reduction of side effects and complications.