Korean J Pain 2020;33(2):108-120 https://doi.org/10.3344/kjp.2020.33.2.108 pISSN 2005-9159 eISSN 2093-0569 Review Article All about pain pharmacology: what pain physicians should know Kyung-Hoon Kim1, Hyo-Jung Seo1, Salahadin Abdi2, and Billy Huh2 1Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea 2Department of Pain Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA Received February 8, 2020 Revised March 12, 2020 From the perspective of the definition of pain, pain can be divided into emotional Accepted March 13, 2020 and sensory components, which originate from potential and actual tissue dam- age, respectively. The pharmacologic treatment of the emotional pain component Correspondence includes antianxiety drugs, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. The anti-anxiety Kyung-Hoon Kim drugs have anti-anxious, sedative, and somnolent effects. The antipsychotics are Department of Anesthesia and Pain effective in patients with positive symptoms of psychosis. On the other hand, the Medicine, Pusan National University sensory pain component can be divided into nociceptive and neuropathic pain. Yangsan Hospital, 20 Geumo-ro, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and opioids are usually applied for Mulgeum-eup, Yangsan 50612, Korea Tel: +82-55-360-1422 somatic and visceral nociceptive pain, respectively; anticonvulsants and antide- Fax: +82-55-360-2149 pressants are administered for the treatment of neuropathic pain with positive and E-mail:
[email protected] negative symptoms, respectively. The NSAIDs, which inhibit the cyclo-oxygenase pathway, exhibit anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and analgesic effects; however, they have a therapeutic ceiling.