Common Medications for Joint Pain

Joint pain has become far too common for the human race. Due to the many joint pain causes out there, health professionals have scrambled to find the right arthritis treatment for every specific ailment. This has left pharmacy shelves lined with at least 408 arthritis remedies (and counting) touting to bring long-lasting joint pain relief. So, how do you know which is the right arthritis pain for you? Let’s take a look at the most common medications for joint pain.

Medications Commonly Used for Joint Pain

When joint pain first stops to pop up, it’s okay to go to the store and get something over-the-counter to help take away the pain. However, if you find yourself grabbing a pill everyday and the pain doesn’t seem to go away, consult a physician.

Self-medicating over a long period of time can be dangerous. Not only can some pills become habit-forming, but you may be masking an even bigger issue brewing inside. Anytime you feel pain, your body is trying to send you a message. When you are suffering from chronic pain, your body goes from sending you a message to screaming one.

With that being said, medications that are used for arthritis treatment depend on where the pain is and what type of arthritis you are dealing with. Here is a list of the most common medications for arthritis pain relief.

Analgesics

Also known as painkillers, analgesics do help reduce overall pain, but most don’t do anything to treat the inflammation itself. Depending on the specific analgesic you use, these drugs target the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. By doing so, many of these drugs interfere pain receptors. This is good for immediate, albeit temporary joint pain relief.

Everyday use of analgesics can become addictive to those who are suffering from severe joint pain. Long-term use of analgesics may do severe damage to the body and can even result in overdose or death. Therefore, you must consult a physician if you find yourself taking too many over-the-counter analgesics.

Seeing as there are multiple types of analgesics for arthritis pain relief, let’s break some of the most popular brands down by their subcategories.

• Acetaminophen
• NSAIDs
• Opioids

Let’s take a look at these common medications for joint pain so you can decide if they are the right form of treatment for your arthritis pain.

Acetaminophen

This is a widely available, over-the-counter medicine. Acetaminophen is effective in treating mild to moderate pain. It does this by stopping the synthesis of prostaglandins. These are neurotransmitters our body naturally creates in response to an inflammation such as joint pain or arthritis. When this neurotransmitter moves along the axon to the central nervous system, it presents the brain with signals of pain and discomfort.

While acetaminophen can disrupt prostaglandins from causing pain, it cannot treat an inflammation. Therefore, acetaminophen is a temporary relief. If your inflammation doesn’t work itself out in the window of time that acetaminophen is in the system, then taking this medication as your arthritis relief of choice is only masking the problem.

Popular brands of acetaminophen include:

• Excedrin
• NyQuil
• Robitussin
• Tylenol

Side effects of acetaminophen are tolerable. The worse case scenario would be an upset stomach. However, long-term use of acetaminophen may lead to liver toxicity.

NSAIDs

This acronym stands for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Like acetaminophen, NSAIDs work on reducing pain sensations. They do this by interfering with prostaglandins as well.

What sets NSAIDs apart from acetaminophen is that NSAIDs also take on inflammations. This also has to do with NSAIDs’ relationship with prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are produced by two distinct cyclooxygenase enzymes, COX-1 and COX-2.

While acetaminophen can interfere with the activity of COX-1, which is to create prostaglandins, it doesn’t have the strength to tackle COX-2. That’s where NSAIDs step in. COX-2 is responsible for inflammatory bursts in joints, leading to arthritis pain. NSAIDs can disturb the process of COX-2, causing inflammations to go down (and depending on the severity, disappear).

Popular brands of NSAIDs include:

• Advil
• Aleve (Naproxen Sodium)
• Aspirin (Ibuprofen)
• Motrin

Seeing as NSAIDs interfere with COX-1, like acetaminophen, you may suffer from stomach pain when using this medication for arthritis relief. Additionally, COX-1 helps with blood clotting in the gut. So, long-term use of NSAIDs may lead to stomach ulcers and intestinal bleeding.

Opioids

This form of arthritis treatment is for extreme cases. Opioids are highly addictive and require a prescription. As the news has been following, opioid overdoses are on the rise. If you are not in need of an opiod for your joint pain relief, do not seek it out. This is a last case scenario and taking opioids must be overseen by a professional.

Our nervous system is equipped with cerebral opioid receptors. When stimulated, these disrupt a number of patterns in the system. Most of the time, opioids suck up as much of the serotonin in your body as possible. This causes you to feel rush of calm and happiness. In turn, you don’t feel joint pain.

Most well-known opiods for joint pain relief include:

• Hydrocodone
• Morphine
• Oxycodone
• Oxycontin
• Tramadol

As we mentioned, opioids are highly addictive. They also come with a number of side effects. Depending on the medication and your body’s reaction, you may experience vomiting, depression, and constipation.

Now that you know some of the most common medications for joint pain, let’s check out the topical agents for joint pain:

Click here for the next section on topical agents