Adjunctive analgesic therapy

Adjuvant analgesics are drugs that have weak or nonexistent analgesic actio n when administered alone but can enhance analgesic actions when coadminist ered with known analgesic agents. Such agents are often administered in cas es of refractory pain. For some chronic pain syndromes, however, they may c onstitute a first-line approach. Because pain is such an individual experie nce, analgesic regimens may require several drugs at varying dosages to con fer a comfortable state. Adjunctive therapies such as the tricyclic antidep ressants, anticonvulsants, N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor antagonists an d low-dose intravenous local anesthetics, to name a few have proved to be e fficacious in relieving certain types of pain, especially neuropathic and c ancer pain. Their use in animals is increasing with anecdotal reports of so me success.