HUF 2-64&65 Pain: drug overview Flashcards
Pain
- Actual or potential tissue damage => unpleasant sensory and emotional experience
- Psychical adjunct of imperative protective reflex
- Stimulus
=> Signal generation and transduction
=> Signal transmission
=> Signal modulation
=> Pain perception - Physiologic pain: acute, protective (withdrawal reflex)
- Pathologic pain: chronic, diseases (RA, DM neuropathy)
=> Neuropathic pain (nerve damage / altered expression of receptors or channels at nerve endings)
Physiologic pain (nociceptive pain)
- Somatic (skin surface, ms, joints, tendons)
- Visceral (internal organs)
- External stimuli
- Nociceptors located on peripheral endings of 1° sensory neurons (pain fibres)
- Postoperative pain
Peripheral signal transduction and sensitisation of pain
- Neuronal depolarisation => AP
- Direct result of stimuli activating nociceptors
- ↑ Nociceptor sensitivity (lower activation threshold)
OR ↑ Na+/Ca2+ influx, ↑ Ca2+ release
(phosphorylation by protein kinase)
=> Signal enhanced (freq, duration)
=> Peripheral sensitisation (SP, BK, PG, Histamine)
Signal conduction of pain
- Thinly myelinated Aδ
- Unmyelinated C
- AP propagaion: VGNC opening => depolarisation
Signal transmission of pain
- Various laminae of dorsal horn
- Both pre- and post-synaptic sides contain receptors, ion channels and transporters => alter transmission
- Aβ: non-nociceptive, sensitive to rubbing, light pressure
- Lamina II: substantia gelatinosa - inteneurons that receive inputs from Aδ, C and Aβ fibres
Central sensitisation of pain
- ↑ receptor/channel expression and phosphorylation
=> ↑ neuronal response to stimuli
=> Easier to generate AP (↓ threshold)
=> Short term OR long term (altered gene expression) sensitisation
e.g. Role of PG
Signal relay control at spinal cord of pain
Gate control theory
- Nociceptive signals travel via Aδ and C fibres to SG
- Non-nociceptive signals travel via Aβ to SG
- Interneurons in SG are inhibitory
* Absence of Aβ
=> Aδ and C transmit inhibitory signals to SG
=> Suppress SG activity
=> Smaller inhibitory outputs for further projection
=> ↑ Pain perception
* Greater stimulation on SG by Aβ
=> Greater inhibitory outputs for further projection
=> Negate small stimulatory signal that causes pain perception
Signal modulation of pain
- Descending inhibition
- Periaqueductal gray (targets of opioids)
- Locus ceruleus (NA)
- Nu raphe magnus (5-HT)
2 Descriptions of pathologic painL allodynia, hyperalgesia
Allodynia: pain elicited by stimulus that normally should not cause pain
Hyperalgesia: ↑ pain response produced by stimulus that normally causes lighter pain
Treatment choices according to characteristics of pain
- Pain etiology severity, duration, mechanism, treatment effectiveness
- WHO Pain Relief Ladder for Cancer Pain
1. Better pain control: higher steps => descend to lower steps afterwards
2. Pain not controlled: lower steps => move upward - Adjuvants: steroids, anxiolytics, antidepressants, antiepileptics, Na+ channel blockers, Ca2+ channel blockers, NMDA receptor blocker
- Opioids, non-opioids
Paracetamol
- Weak (~50%) COX1 and COX2 inhibitory activity
- Much stronger analgesic than anti-inflammatory effect
- Comparable efficacy to aspirin in treating tension headache; slower onset
Opioid analgesics and related drugs
- Narcotic analgesics = opioid analgesics
- Opiate: structurally related compounds to morphine
- Opioid: any compound with properties of opiate
- Endogenous opioids enkephalin, endorphin, dynorphin
- Opioid antagonists: Naloxone, Naltrexone
- Opioid receptor subtypes: μ, δ, κ, ORL1
Opioid receptors: structural characteristcs
- G1 coupled
- From homodimers or heterodimers e.g. μ-δ
- Receptor selectivity dependent on positioning of extracellular loops (favour some agonists over others0
- Receptor internalisation and subsequent tolerance for μ and δ receptors differentially induced depending on agonist and binding duration
Functional effects of opioid receptors
μ
- Analgesia: supraspinal, spinal, peripheral
- Respiratory depression
- Pupil constriction
- Reduced GI motility
- Euphoria
- NO dysphoria and hallucination
- Sedation
- Physical dependence
δ
- Spinal analgesia
- Respiratory depression
- Reduced GI motility
κ
- Analgesia: spinal, peripheral
- Dysphoria and hallucination
- Sedation
Points to note on functional effects of opioid receptors
- Analgesic effects may be diminished (tolerance)
=> May display hyperalgesia after prolonged use - Supraspinal effects
- Analgesia and reduced affective component of pain (limbic system; related to euphoria) - ↓ Sensitivity of respiratory centres and respiratory rhythm generator
=> Highly fatal in acute opioid poisoning - Miosis: diagnostic of opioid poisoing; resistant to opioid tolerance
- Opioid withdrawal symptoms: runny nose, restlessness aggression, shivering, irritability, diarrhoea