Pain and antianxiety agents: Benzodiazepine

In patients with intractable chronic pain caused by various influencing factors, it is frequently difficult to control pain with common analgesics, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and acetaminophea In these cases, anticonvulsant and antianxiety agents are often used to manage painful conditions. Benzodiazepine is one of the antianxiety drugs and recognized to have no analgesic effects. However, its anxiolytic action and muscle relaxation effectively lead to relief of chronic pain. At the same time, there may be a risk of fracture due to fall especially in the elderly and possibilities of dependence and resistance to drugs. Therefore, long-term use and high-dosing of benzodiazepines should be avoided to prevent the adverse effects. For this reasons patients with insomnia due to chronic pain should consider using sleep inducing agents such as melatonin receptor agonists and orexin receptor antagonists with few side effects.