The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 10 of Childhood
Leukemia: A Guide for Families, Friends, and Caregivers, 2nd Edition by
Nancy Keene, copyright 1999 by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. For book
orders/information, call (800) 998-9938. Permission is granted to print and
distribute this excerpt for noncommercial use as long as the above source is
included. The information in this article is meant to educate and should not be
used as an alternative for professional medical care.
As with other drugs,
drugs used for pain relief can be given by various methods and can cause side
effects. This article lists some drugs commonly used to relieve pain. Many other
medications are used to relieve pain in children, including Tylenol, Nalbuphrine,
Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, and others.
Pain medication list
Several different
names can be used to refer to each of the pain medications. You may hear the
same drug referred to by its generic name or one of several brand names,
depending on which doctor, nurse, or pharmacist you are talking to. The list
below gives various names of pain medications, and what name to look under in
this article.
|
Name: |
Look
Under: |
| Codeine
|
Codeine
|
| Demerol |
Meperidine
|
| Dilaudid
|
Hydromorphone
|
| Dolophine |
Methadone
|
| Methadone
|
Methadone
|
| Morphine |
Morphine
|
| Percocet
|
Oxycodone
|
Codeine
How given:
Intramuscular injection, pills by mouth, liquid by mouth
How it works:
Codeine is an alkaloid obtained from opium.
Common side
effects:
Infrequent side
effects:
Meperidine
Also called:
Demerol
How given:
Intravenous injection, liquid by mouth, pill by mouth
How it works:
Meperidine is a narcotic similar to morphine.
Common side
effects:
Infrequent side
effects:
Hydromorphone
Also called:
Dilaudid
How given:
IV injection, pill by mouth, rectal suppository
How it works:
Hydromorphone is a narcotic pain reliever.
Precautions:
Hydromorphone can cause respiratory depression.
Common side
effects:
Infrequent side
effects:
Methadone
Also called:
Dolophine
How given:
IV injection, pill by mouth, liquid by mouth
How it works:
Methadone is a narcotic pain reliever.
Common side
effects:
Infrequent side
effects:
Morphine
How given:
IV injection, pill by mouth, liquid by mouth
How it works:
Morphine is a narcotic derived from the opium plant.
Common side
effects:
Infrequent side
effects:
Oxycodone
Also called:
Percocet, oxycotin
How it works:
Oxycodone is a narcotic derived from opium.
Common side
effects:
Infrequent side
effects:
Local anesthetics to prevent pain
Two products commonly
used to prevent pain are EMLA and Numby Stuff.
EMLA cream
How given:
Applied to the skin and covered with an airtight dressing one to two hours
before procedures such as spinal tap, bone marrow aspiration, or injection.
How it works:
Emulsion which contains two anesthetics, lidocaine and prilocaine.
Note:
May take longer than an hour to achieve effective anesthesia in dark-skinned
individuals.
We use EMLA for everything: finger
pokes, accessing port, shots, spinal taps, and bone marrows. I even let her
sister use it for shots because it lets her get a bit of attention, too. Both of
my children have sensitive skin which turns red when they pull off tape, so I
cover the EMLA with plastic wrap held in place with paper tape. I also fold back
the edge of each piece of tape to make a pull tab so the kids don't have to peel
each edge back from their skin.
Numby Stuff
How given:
Needle-free method of delivering pain medication through the use of low-level
electric currents applied to the skin.
How it works:
Emulsion which contains two anesthetics, lidocaine and epinephrine.
Note:
Anesthetizes skin and tissue in ten to fifteen minutes. Some children and teens
do not like the electrical sensation that goes from the site to the battery
pack.