Innovations in pharmacologic therapies.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the mechanism of action of four new neurotransmitters that may play a role in pain modulation and to review the clinical implications of these new classes of analgesics.


METHODS
Research studies, proceedings, abstracts, and book chapters pertaining to new pharmacologic therapies for pain relief.


CONCLUSIONS
Recent advances in our understanding of neurotransmitter and receptor physiology have provided new directions for the development and testing of analgesic compounds. NMDA antagonists and calcium channel blockers warrant investigations in humans. Additional human studies are needed of alpha 2 adrenergic agonists and GABA agonists.


CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge of new novel classes of analgesics is important as further investigative studies will take place to determine which types of pain problems are most effectively treated by these classes of drugs.
Miaskowski
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Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California, San Francisco 94143, USA.
D000316:Adrenergic alpha-Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018755:GABA Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*
D000316:Adrenergic alpha-Agonists; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers; D018755:GABA Agonists; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate