What You Need to Know About Pain Medications

Your physician should determine the best approach for managing your pain based on its cause. He or she may consider prescribing medication in either of the following cases:

• There is no way to treat the cause of the pain.
• It will take time for the treatment to take effect.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist

• How much medicine should I take?
• How often should I take it?
• If my pain is not relieved, can I take more? If the dose should be increased, by how much?
• Should I call you before increasing the dose?
• What if I forget to take the medicine or take it too late?
• Should I take my medicine with food?
• How much liquid should I drink with the medicine?
• How long does it take the medicine to start working (called “onset of action”)?
• Is it safe to drink alcoholic beverages, drive, or operate machinery after I have taken pain medicine?
• What other medicines can I take with this pain medicine?
• What side-effects from the medicine are possible, and how can I prevent them?

Types of Pain Medicine

For mild pain, your doctor may recommend acetaminophen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) medications, including aspirin and ibuprofen.

• Most of these medications are available without a doctor’s prescription.
• NSAIDs used alone have a limit to their pain-relieving effect – so taking a higher dose may not be recommended.
• Even though aspirin is an excellent pain reliever, it too has its limitations.
• Although these medications are available without a prescription, your medical team will still need to monitor you.

For moderate to severe pain, your doctor may prescribe opioid pain medication, which requires a prescription.

• Opioids can be taken by mouth (pill or liquid), as a suppository, by injection, or through a patch on the body.
• Unlike NSAIDs, most opioid pain relievers don’t have a limit on their ability to relieve pain. Usually, the higher the dose, the greater the pain relief.
• Your doctor will be careful, of course, to ensure your dose is appropriate to manage your level of pain.

As with any treatment for pain, if these medications aren’t helping you, your healthcare team will try an alternative. Sometimes your doctor may prescribe nonopioids along with opioids to treat specific types of pain (for example, prescribing NSAIDs along with opioids to treat bone pain).

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