MRI Specialist Migraine Treatment Centers
Opiates are drugs developed from a substance called opium. These drugs relieve pain and are thus described as an analgesic. Opiates cause a higher resistance to pain than any other substance investigated. There are other drugs that relieve pain but are not from opium. Such drugs are called non-opiate analgesics. Studies that have been conducted, thus far, using non-opiate analgesics showed contrasting results. This may be because the data used in the studies are often not measurable, not enough or irrelevant.
The following study is able to present the effects of non-opiate substances used for pain relief.
These were the substances investigated: acetylsalicylic acid, acetanilid, acetophenetidin, aminopyrine, ethyl alcohol, trichloroethylene, a barbiturate, quinine, ergotamine tartrate, and caffeine. The pain was induced in 3 participants individually. 3.5 square centimeters of the participant’s skin was exposed to radiation from a light bulb. Radiation exposure was of different intensities. The radiation intensity that barely caused pain was defined as the pain threshold. The non-opiates were tested to see how much they could increase this pain threshold compared to the normal. Experiments were repeated at different intervals and with different quantities of each drug. For each drug the authors noted; the maximum point to which the pain threshold was raised, the duration of the effect and the total threshold raising effect. Each drug showed different threshold raising abilities at different quantities.
View the original pain study at this link: Measurement of the effect on the pain threshold of acetylsalicylic acid, acetanilid, acetophenetidin, aminopyrine, ethyl alcohol, trichloroethylene, a barbiturate, quinine, ergotamine tartrate, and caffeine: An analysis of their relation to the pain experience.
- ” The dramatic termination of migraine headache by 0.5 mg. injections of ergotamine tartrate aroused curiosity concerning the nature of the analgesic action of this agent.”
