medication for relieving pain among osteoarthritis patients
medication for relieving pain among osteoarthritis patients
Instructions: Response must be at least 300 words written in current APA format with at least two academic references cited. References must be within the last five years years. Response must extend, refute/correct, or add additional nuance.
Acetaminophen is the recommended medication for relieving pain among osteoarthritis patients. The drug, also known as Paracetamol. And Tylenol, is administered due to its antipyretic properties which help subdue fever. And pain, the common symptoms of Osteoarthritis (Banks et al, 2019). It has not been fully examined to determine how it manipulates the human system to provide its healing effects. However, it shares properties with Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) which inhibit the patient’s cyclooxygenase pathways (Banks et al, 2019).
When administered, it exerts central actions to provide pain management effectively leading to gradual alleviation of pain. Consequently, the drug may significantly get in the way of brain activities. Thus reducing production of prostaglandins (Kielly et al., 2017). These chemicals are responsible for inflammation and swelling. In the process, pain is relieved through increased threshold for pain. Actions on the brain part that deals with heat regulation leads to reduced remission of fever. This facilitates effective management of osteoarthritis.
Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug
Just like other drugs, celecoxib may present side effects when used for pain management and associated symptoms among osteoarthritis patients. Celecoxib is a Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug. Celebrex alleviates pain and inflammation by affecting the production of the substance that produces these effects. These class of drugs when used increase the risk of experiencing heart attacks among other cardiovascular health complications (Cheng et al., 2020). Based on individual patients, the effects which showcase within a short turn around time may become severe or even result to death. It is thus necessary for the health provider to assess their patients on the family history of cardiovascular conditions like high blood pressure among other chronic conditions. These are factors they must educate their patients on before prescribing drugs which could become fatal to their health.
Lifestyle habits such as smoking and excessive drinking may also increase risk of these complications with celecoxib use. Patients should inform the health provider if they have a history of heart attacks to determine effectiveness and safety of the drug in the concerned patient. Use of this drug is also associated with other health complications such as ulcers which may develop within the treatment period unnoticed. Older patients and those with poor health are susceptible to adverse side effects due to celecoxib use (Kielly et al., 2017). To prevent drug interaction, avoid concurrent use of the drug with anticoagulants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors as well as select serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors.
Ibuprofen and Celecoxib
In terms of properties of Ibuprofen and Celecoxib, both of these drugs are used for the treatment and management of acute pain caused by degenerative joint ailments (Cheng et al., 2020). They relieve the inflammatory effects by affecting production of substances within the body that are responsible for pain and inflammation. Similar to other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, they are prescribed for short term use. Their use may lead to an increased risk of developing stroke among other heart conditions (Kielly et al., 2017).
Both are also characterized with increased gastrointestinal complications. While celecoxib has been more effective in relieving dental pain, Ibuprofen is mainly used for knee and joint pains (Cheng et al., 2020). Ibuprofen is relatively affordable compares to celecoxib and its generic version. Ibuprofen is also easily accessible as it can be sourced over the counter while celecoxib remains a prescription-only drug. Celecoxib is comparatively safer on the patient’s kidney as it does not affect serum creatinine production.
