The most important analgesics and their side effects

1. Big picture

Analgesics are drugs used to reduce pain. In neurology, they are especially important in:

• headache disorders;
• migraine attacks;
• tension-type headache;
• cluster headache;
• trigeminal neuralgia;
• radicular pain;
• neuropathic pain;
• musculoskeletal spinal pain;
• postherpetic neuralgia;
• central pain syndromes.

The key exam sentence:

In neurology, choose analgesics according to pain mechanism: nociceptive pain responds to paracetamol, metamizole and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; severe acute pain may need opioids; neuropathic pain needs antiepileptics or antidepressants; migraine needs NSAIDs, triptans or ergot derivatives, while opioids should u