Term
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Definition
| Opioid analgesics are typically prescribed to patients with acute pain recovering from surgery or a traumatic event. This can also be used for pain with cancer treatment, for cough suppression, to treat severe diarrhea, and to control some panic attacks. The drug binds to opioid receptors and alters the way the pain is perceived by the brain which often induces a feeling of euphoria while slowing heart and respiration rates. |
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Term
| Opioid Analgesics - Examples |
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Definition
| Examples: Hydrocodone, Morphine, and Methadone. |
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Term
| Muscle Relaxants for Spasticity - Def |
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Definition
Patients with muscle spasms may require the use of muscle relaxers when an orthopedic injury occurs to the musculoskeletal system or a peripheral nerve root. Muscle spasms are defined as increased, involuntary, tension in the skeletal muscle. An example of musculoskeletal type of injury is a low back strain which can cause painful muscle spasms.
drugs work to increase the inhibitory effects of the gamma- aminobutyric acid (GABA). By increasing inhibitory effects of GABA, the muscle spasms are alleviated by the drug’s sedative effects. Polysynaptic inhibitors are not as well understood in their mechanism of action on muscle spasms. A few drugs in this category include: carisoprotol (Soma, Vanadon),lorphenesin carbamate (Maolate), and clorzoxazone (Paraflex, Parafon Forte, others). It is likely that through decreasing the polysynaptic activity in the spinal cord, the alpha motor neurons would decrease in excitability causing muscular relaxation. Additionally, they have an overall depressive effect on the central nervous system which through an unknown sedative mechanism relaxes the muscle. |
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Term
| Muscle Relaxants for spasticity - Ex |
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Definition
| Diazepam (Valium) and Polysynaptic Inhibitors |
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