Preface

Chapter 9 **Pharmacologic Management of Low Back Pain 183**

Chapter 10 **Paracetamol: Update on its Analgesic Mechanism**

**Analgesics for Jejunal Pains 225** Kania Bogdan Feliks and Danuta Wrońska

**Section 3 Alternative Therapies for Pain Relief 261**

Chapter 14 **Natural Products as a Source for Novel Analgesic**

Rehab Fawzy Abdel-Rahman

Chapter 16 **Analgesics: New Target and Sources 315** Mohammad Saleem and Huma Naz

**from Medicinal Plants 339**

Chapter 11 **Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel Antagonists: Potential**

Christophe Mallet, Alain Eschalier and Laurence Daulhac

Chapter 12 **Interaction of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) with Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS): Possible Biomedical**

Norman A. García, Mabel Bregliani and Adriana Pajares

Paweł Lizis, Wojciech Kobza, Grzegorz Mańko, Marcin Sitarz and

Khawla Nuseir, Manal Kassab and Mohammed Al-Azzani

Abdur Rauf, Noor Jehan, Zarka Ahmad and Mohammad S. Mubarak

Chapter 17 **Analgesic Potential of Extracts and Derived Natural Products**

Chapter 13 **Effect of Nonpharmacological Therapies on Pain and Health Perception in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis 263**

Dallas Schepers

**VI** Contents

**of Action 207**

**Implications 245**

Jarosław Pyka

**Compounds 277**

Chapter 15 **Sweet Solution Analgesia 301**

**Section 2 Novel Research on Analgesics 205**

Since the beginning of times, pain treatment has been the motive of research giving birth to multiple groups of pharmacological families and therapies. Pain perception is a construction built over the biological phenomenon of signal transduction surrounded by different factors such as gender, age, and sociocultural status, among others. Therefore, it should be consid‐ ered as a multidimensional process; and as such, a multidisciplinary solution is needed.

The concept of pain as the solely biological manifestation of defense is nowadays considered as a narrow-minded view of this topic. In this regard concepts such as newborns feel no pain or older people complain about everything therefore should not be paid attention when referring pain, are being left behind in the understanding that pain alleviation is a human right and everybody feeling pain should be helped for its relief.

At the very beginning, this book was solely intended to address analgesic drugs, but as chapter proposals arrived, the editorial team started to realize that any substance or techni‐ que that caused pain relief could be considered as an analgesic by the researchers. Therefore, this book started focusing on pain treatment rather than on analgesics; as a result, there is a rich variety of knowledge and expertise shared along the chapters.

This book comprises many aspects of pain treatment and the drugs involved in it. From old analgesics with new mechanisms of action for pain alleviation to analgesics potential for di‐ minishing oxidative stress; from pharmacological therapies to electrical ones, going through alternative medicine; and from pain treatment in dentistry to chronic pain therapies, also boarding the treatment of migraine, different experts share their knowledge on the topic.

It has been a long journey in which all authors have made the greatest efforts to show in a comprehensive manner the results of their research and/or the state of the art in pain treat‐ ment. It is our wish that you find it useful in clinical practice as well as to be updated in the latest investigation related to pain relief.

## **Acknowledgments**

I am grateful to Drs. Irene Retamoso, Andrea Graña, and María José Montes for their support and for all the knowledge shared during the time together in the Interdisciplinary Pain Manage‐ ment Service of the University Hospital "Dr. Manuel Quintela," Montevideo Uruguay.

> **Dr. Cecilia Maldonado** Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, UdelaR, Montevideo, Uruguay

**Chapter 1**
