Pain Management and Prescription Drug Tolerance

From physical injuries to chronic conditions, humans can experience high levels of pain that can lower their quality of life. Pain can take a toll on us mentally as well as physically, affecting concentration, mental function, focus, and even memory. Physicians aim to eliminate—or at least reduce—physical pain, bringing discomfort to tolerable levels with pain management. However, over time, many patients develop tolerance to pain medication, making pain relief more difficult to obtain, and heightening the risks of pain medication dependency.

Pain Management and Prescription Drugs

Pharmaceutical pain management can come in several forms, including over-the-counter painkillers, non-opioids with narcotic properties, and opioid drugs. The most common expressions of pain management usually come in the form of opioid prescriptions. From Vicodin to morphine, opioids are narcotic medications that reduce feelings of pain quite effectively, but chronic or high-dose use can have adverse effects, especially if they go unmonitored.

In theory, pain medications are prescribed when needed, but for those with serious injuries or chronic pain, courses of daily painkillers may be recommended. Physicians should monitor consumption and dosage with follow-up appointments, both to ensure that pain is effectively managed and to avoid dependency on painkillers. When the source of pain has been treated successfully and pain begins to subside, patients should be gradually removed from pain medication to avoid withdrawal.

How Tolerance Affects Pain Management Plans

Similarly to how tolerance builds in consumption of alcohol, prescription pain medications can be affected by tolerance too. Over time, the effects of painkillers—especially opioids—begin to lose effectiveness as they interact with the brain. Sometimes, when prescription drug tolerance builds, patients find themselves taking dosages of painkillers more frequently than recommended. At other times, doctors will increase prescribed painkillers to patients—prescribing higher dosages or more potent painkillers—in order to combat tolerance and remove pain. With high enough dosages, taken over time, even those patients without a history of chemical dependency can become physically reliant on prescription painkillers.

Pain Management Alternatives to Narcotics

When prescription drug tolerance leads patients to experience painkillers as less effective, doctors sometimes have options beyond dosage and drug strength increase. Some doctors will switch the patient onto a non-opioid drug, in order to achieve a period of abstinence that will allow tolerance to lower. At other times, nonopioid painkillers, such as Tramadol, can be used to reduce pain without using narcotics. Many doctors will also begin to seek treatment of the underlying issue, recommending physical therapy or cognitive therapy to reduce pain. Alternative methods, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbal preparations and various forms of massage can also be used to manage pain when prescription drug tolerance has developed.

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