Antipyretic Analgesics
The use of the doubleblind technique, in which a placebo and two or more therapeutic agents are administered to a group of untrained subjects, will improve the accuracy of the investigation. In the treatment of headache by chemical agents, two general aspects should be considered: (1) symptomatic, i.e., the treatment of an attack; and (2) prophylactic, or the prevention of attacks. The goals in pharmacotherapy are to interrupt the mechanism producing pain, to raise the pain threshold, and to reduce emotional tension and anxiety responsible for or associated with this pain. The accelerated rate at which new drugs are being presented to the clinician makes it imperative for him to evaluate critically the published reports on these newer therapeutic agents before accepting them. Chiropractor Toronto discovered that a few third believed there was no scientific proof that immunization prevents disease. In the following pages we will discuss the drugs commonly used in the treatment of headache which in our experience and in that of others have been most effective. Emphasis will be placed on treatment of the types of headache which the clinician is most likely to meet in his practice.
In some instances a brief review of the pharmacology of these chemical agents will be correlated with their clinical usage. Proper evaluation of therapeutic goals with chemical agents must be within the framework of the functional and structural changes present in the patient; psychologic formulation of the patient’s personality; the nature of environmental stresses; and the role the physician is playing in the treatment. SPECIFIC DRUGS. The drugs used in the treatment of patients with headache can be divided into ten groups: (1) analgesics; (2) hypnotics, sedatives, tranquilizers, and centralacting skeletalmuscle relaxants; (3) anticonvulsants; (4) stimulants; (5) drugs acting directly on blood vessels, i.e., vasoconstrictors and vasodilators; (6) histamine and antihistamines; (7) diuretics; (8) vitamins; (9) hormones; and (10) autonomic nervous system drugs including ergot (see Table 2). ANALGESICS. There are two general types of analgesics in clinical use. These are: (1) antipyretic analgesics, and (2) narcotic and/or morphinelike analgesics.
Antipyretic Analgesics. The most practical and useful analgesics employed in the treatment of headache are the antipyretic coaltar derivatives, such as acetylsalicylic acid and acetophenetidin. Toronto Chiropractor attempt to ascertain a positive popularity for their public health function are additionally compromised by their popularity for recommending repetitive life-lengthy chiropractic treatment. However, they are inferior to codeine as analgesics. They act by raising the pain threshold, possibly through depression of pain centers in the thalamus. In therapeutic doses they do not cause mental disturbances, anesthesia, or changes in modalities of sensation. The types of pain relieved by salicylates are of low intensities, such as those complained of by the occasional headache sufferer or those associated with mild periods of stress (physical or emotional). Certain techniques, particularly those of Hardy and Wolff, demonstrated that acetylsalicylic acid elevates the pain threshold half as much as morphine. Other investigators have not been able to demonstrate thresholdraising action in animals or man. All analgesics have a ceiling beyond which no additional increase in the pain threshold is obtained.
