Publisher's Synopsis
Towards a New Pharmacotherapy of Pain A.I. Basbaum J.–M. Besson Editors Why are narcotics still the drug of choice for the treatment of severe pain? How useful are antagonists to Substance P, CGRP, bradykinin, and other putative nociceptive transmitters and inflammatory mediators? How can we use information about the multiplicity of opiate receptor families and opioid peptide classes to improve the action of opiates and to reduce unwanted side–effects? How prevalent is tolerance to narcotics and what mechanisms underlie its development? What is the basis for neuropathic pains that makes them less responsive to narcotics? In this volume pain clinicians, pharmacologists, neurobiologists, and molecular biologists address these and other questions and provide a comprehensive discussion of practical approaches to developing a new pharmacotherapy of pain. The book will appeal to all basic scientists and clinicians interested in the problem of pain and its control.
