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There is a lot of research going on to find new ways to control chronic pain. Some of the findings are promising, because this research leads to new medications that may produce fewer side effects. For example, there is a new, unique pain medication that includes a synthetic analgesic compound found to be effective in relieving moderate to moderately severe chronic pain, such as the pain we might normally consider NSAIDs or opioids like morphine or codeine for. However, this medication is not an NSAID and therefore does not pose the problems associated with NSAIDs we mentioned a little earlier, such as interfering with blood pressure medication or causing gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers. COX-2 inhibitors are also a new class of agents generating enthusiasm because of significantly fewer gastrointestinal side effects. Their effectiveness is comparable to the NSAIDs.
