Is it worth using Caffeine containing OTC medicines for acute pain?
Background:
Pain is an unpleasant experience which can be simply described as ‘something that hurts the body’. According to the British Pain society acute pain is pain that doesn 't last any longer than twelve weeks (British Pain Society s.d.). However, acute pain caused by conditions like, headaches, postoperative pain and post partum pain, can greatly disrupt the everyday routine of an individual. This, in turn, will lead them to resort to simple anaelgesics such as: Paracetamol, iBuprofen and Aspirin etc (Shipley M, et al 2011). Furthermore, caffeine is also used with common analgesics in doses varying from 15mg up to 200mg to enhance their effects (Medicines
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Therefore, making the review highly reliable to use while making decisions in healthcare settings (Cochrane Community (beta) 2014).
The systematic review included over 20 studies which compared the effects of oral analgesics with and without caffeine, the studies used “were all randomised and double blind” (Derry C.J. et al, 2014, p. 2 and12). Each study included a minimum of 10 participants each of atleast age 16 years or older (Derry C.J. et al, 2014, p. 6). The fact that the studies were all randomised, adds to the credibility of the review because the evidence used can be graded of being “high quality” (Petrisor B.A. and Bhandari. M, 2007). Most of the studies in the review focused on very common acute pain conditions, such as: dental pain, headache, post operative dental pain and post partum pain (Derry C.J. et al, 2014, p. 2).
The combined difference for 50% of the maximum pain relief between the control group and the intervention group was 7%, which gave an effect size of 0.07 without any side effects (Derry C.J. et al, 2014, p. 2). Although the effect size was quite small, due to the large quantity of participants, the results showed very promising evidence in favor of the addition of caffeine to the analgesics. The summary of the results showed that 48% of the intervention group agreed that they achieved 50% of the maximum pain
The selected policy Essence of Care 2010: Benchmarks for the Prevention and Management of Pain, includes the latest benchmarks on the management of pain and its prevention. It presents up to date reviewed views, with the aim to deliver
Recognizing that the prevention of chronic disease and promoting population health is the key to controlling health care expenditure, the inclusion of pain management is a positive aspect of the legislation. While chronic pain is not in the top leading chronic diseases, the cost to the health care system is higher than heart disease and diabetes combined.2 This paper will discuss Title IV - Prevention of Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health. Subsection D - Support for Prevention and Public Health Innovation of the PPACA, including the funding of the United States Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) for research in public health services and the examination of best prevention practices. One focus of this part of this provision is research and evaluation of pain management, the assessment, and treatment standards through an Institute of Medicine Conference on Pain Care.3
Because severe pain is more difficult to control, Mrs R may become anxious and fatigued, and may also withdraw again from the regimen if there is no success in achieving pain relief; therefore, the preventive approach needs to be considered. (Wells, 2014). For an effective pain control pain, Mrs R should also keep a daily record of her pain. Writing a diary can help empower the patient in her own care, give her confidence and increase self-efficacy (Bastable, 2014). Also, a strategy of pain management is to combine opiods with non-narcotics, such as Tylenol, in order to enhance pain relief and to slowly decrease the use of narcotics overtime (Lewis, 2014). Mrs R was explained to always follow the right dosage of medication to optimize the narcotic results. A complete assessment of pain should be performed: PQRST. Pain is a subjective concept and the patient must describe the pain in order to provide an effective care plan (Jarvis, 2013). Responses to pain medication should be documented to facilitate communication between health care providers, therefore to maximise effective pain management strategies (Lewis, 2014). The use of non-pharmacological therapy for pain is also recommended to Mrs R because it helps reduce the dose of an analgesic/opiod required to control pain and helps to minimize analgesic side effects, and also promote the release of endorphins which inhibit pain signals (NCBI, 2010). Mrs R is encouraged to use distraction such as watching TV, listening to the radio/music, which redirect the attention on something and away of the pain. Imagery can also be proposed to divert the focus away from the pain by stimulating the client’s imagination to develop sensory images. Relaxation strategies can also be used to help Mrs R to be free of her anxiety and stress, and to reduce muscle tension (Lewis,
Mackey (2015) has argued that pain is subjective symptom and is derivative of several biochemical, psychological, and socioeconomic factors, and different cultural groups experience and expresses pain differentially. Jibb et el (2015) have noted that causes of pain are numerus and they have potential affect pain management differently. Pain can be a symptom of a disease, or it can result from invasive treatment and diagnostic procedures. The prefrontal cortex has neurophysiological pathways that responds to pain signals, thereby regulating emotions, cognitions, memory, and attention (Barrett & Chang, 2016).
The experiment was conducted on 75 healthy University of Sydney medical science students of both sexes and varying ages and body types. which involved two different types of induction of pain. The independent variable was the type of drug analgesic (paracetamol or combined with codeine) and the dependent variable was the pain response whilst taking the drug. All participants were given ethical and safety awareness of the experiment, and had a choice to participate. Their medical conditions (i.e. allergies) and any previous morning medication taken were considered prior to allowing them to participate.
The most common use is for cough syrup (4). There are many controversies surrounding the topic of codeine, including using an alternative for post-surgery recovery (6). However, when studies were done, it was found that the effects of codeine when compared to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs containing caffeine were significantly more effective in reducing pain. Although, after 3 days, caffeine was found to reduce more swelling (6). Therefore codeine is more efficient for reducing pain because the opioid painkillers act like endorphins, natural pain-reducing chemicals, found in the brain and spinal cord (6). Codeine can be found in liquid form in cough syrups or in solid form as painkiller
The subjective human response to acute pain is a response that is most often self-reported and is dependently measured on a pain scale by health care providers. The phenomenon of pain is that it sometimes is difficult to manage without the perplexities of the typical opioid analgesic side effects. More than often, these accompanying side effects Hoffman et al. (2011) state the inclusion of sedation, constipation, nausea, and cognitive disorientation. In addition, repeated use of opioid analgesics gradually decline in effectiveness without dosage adjustments and can lead to a state of tolerance with ultimately a reliance of opioid dependency (Hoffman, et al. 2011). Non-opioid analgesics may compliment opioid analgesics, however, the
Within this experiment we were to analyze four difference analgesic drugs and compare them to different components to see which drug contained what. The components that were used for comparison are Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), Acetaminophen (Ace), Ibuprofen (Ibu), and Caffeine (Caf). The components all have different levels of polarity. To determine the level of polarity before the experiment even starts can be done by looking at the functional groups. The structures can be found under objectives in the carbon copies with the visual representation of what will be said. After observing each structure and determining the functional groups it can be said that caffeine is the most polar out of all of them. This is because it has two carbonyl groups and four amine groups.
All the studies used different measurement tools to measure the psychological aspects of pain, so the review only focused on the physical reported outcomes of pain (Harris et al., 2015). Therefore, the review failed to examine other aspects of pain, as pain is not only a physical experience. The studies found that CBT was statistically “more effective compared to a waiting list in reducing headache intensity in one out of two studies, and in two other studies, reducing headache frequency and headache-free days”(Harris et al., 2015). There is a variety of problems with this review and the studies included within it. The quality between each of the studies varied and therefore, requires the results to be considered with caution due to the potential risk of bias. Furthermore, due to “methodology inadequacies in the evidence base, it makes it difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions or to make any recommendations” (Harris et al., 2015). The review also included older studies, ones that have a high risk of bias, studies with small sample sizes, and ones with “suboptimal reporting” (Harris et al., 2015). Other problems included that “selection bias is unknown or likely in all of these studies”, drop-outs were excluded in a number of the studies, problems with low participant numbers, and “there was a failure to report p values in a number of instances and two
Pain is a significant public health problem impacting millions of people’s worldwide. It’s a distressing feeling affects multidimensional aspect of life; physical, social, spiritual and emotional. Pain is considered a complex phenomena and the most subjective experience. Mostly health care providers are unable to precisely determine the intensity of a patient’s pain; since that there is no any test or physical finding for pain. For these reasons, assessments of pain should be based when possible, on the patient’s self-report, and the health care providers should not underestimated the patient complaint of pain, and try to manage pain in a proper professional way. However placebo use in place of effective pain medication to manage pain is a controversial issue which has been greatly recognized as unethical, ineffective, and harmful. (Zalon, Constantino, Andrews, 2008)
This distinction can be difficult to discern, particularly with prescribed pain medications, for which the need for increasing dosages can represent tolerance or a worsening underlying problem, as opposed to the beginning of abuse or addiction (NIDA).” With that being said not everyone who consumes caffeine is going to be addicted to it but, it can happen.
Breast cancer affects so many women around the world. Even with the technology and medicine we have today to treat this deadly disease, the pain a patient experiences with breast cancer is still relentless. Pain comes from either progression of the disease or a side effect from treatment. In this article they talk about the role of the WHO’s three step analgesic ladder and how the administration of opioids for breast cancer patients experiencing pain effect ones psychological state and their quality of life. Since many patients experience negative side effects from opioids, there becomes a need to develop therapeutic modalities. Overall, the main purpose of the article was to focus on current treatments that provide pain management for
RNAO BPG on “Assessment and Management of Pain” recommended specific new ideas that allow better assessment and pain management in older adult. In particular “collaborating with the person to identify their goals for pain management and suitable strategies to ensure a comprehensive approach to the plan of care” allows for active involvement of patients and their families to participate in decision-making for treatments. This collaboration also clarifies and reveals patient pain history, knowledge, belief and presence of negative belief that may hinder in getting appropriate treatment. Furthermore it provides platform for patient teaching and treatment options when goals seem unrealistic. Pain assessment is critical step to manage pain. Pain as sensory event is highly subjective and can vary substantially from one individual to the next. Literature has revealed certain key concern such as “fear of addiction”, “adverse effects’. ‘Fatalism’ and ‘drug tolerance” etc. that can prevent a patient from getting adequate pain medication (RNAO, 2015). But it is equally important that undertreated pain can have many negative consequences.
In a systematic review performed by Liu et al. [4], the usefulness of this analgesic method was confi rmed during several painful surgical procedures, such as thoracic, cardiac, gynecological, or spinal surgeries. Th e success of this technique may be related to the nature of surgery and also to the level
Non-narcotic analgesics are the household drugs used to treat moderate pains. These include paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen. There are very few noticeable effects beyond treating specific pains (in contrast to narcotics, when a feeling of well-being takes over the body).