International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Ba skaran P et al. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2021 Jan;10(1):133-139 http:// www.ijbcp.com pISSN 2319-2003 | eISSN 2279-0780 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20205553 Review Article Recent advances in pain management Priyadarsini Baskaran1, Venkatraman Karthikeayan2, Anusha Natarajan3* 1Medical Monitor, Clinirx CRO, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 2Consultant Neuro-Immunologist, Global Hospitals, Chennai , Tamil Nadu, India 3Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India Received: 26 May 2020 Revised: 01 December 2020 Accepted: 12 December 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Anusha Natarajan, Email:
[email protected] Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Pain is one of the most common complaints for which patients approach physicians. In spite of this there is a huge unmet need for developing medications for pain that are safe and efficacious. Owing to the heterogeneity of clinical pain and complex pathophysiology, target identification for drug development is difficult. Preclinical models have also proven unreliable for the development of novel analgesics. Recent advances in understanding the physiology of nociception has enabled the development of novel analgesics including abuse deterrent opioids, drugs targeting several receptors, ion channels and enzymes. This review will attempt to cover the physiology of nociception focusing on the novel targets, the challenges in development of novel analgesics and give an overview of the recently developed drugs and those in the pipeline for the management of pain.