Medical researchers have long been seeking ways to help people live longer, healthier lives. Medication manufacturing has become a multi-billion dollar business, CNNMoney.com reports, and people will pay a lot of money to solve or treat their medical problems. Newer drugs supplant older drugs, but many of the older forms of medications still find many uses.
Narcotic Pain Killers
The first medically-produced pain killer was morphine, derived from the opium poppy in 1804 by Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner. Morphine was the first serious pain killer, and many modern medications derive from it. These medications, called opiates or opioids, work to decrease high levels of pain. Along with morphine---still in use as an intravenous and oral medicine---, modern narcotic analgesics have many names, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl, among others. Doctors typically prescribe them for short-term use because of their addictive nature. They may be combined with other pain killers, such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and naproxen sodium, because the two drugs work together to produce better relief of pain, the Mayo Clinic reports.
Non-Narcotic Pain Killers and NSAIDs
Non-narcotic pain killers, such as acetaminophen, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen, all find common uses when sold over the counter (OTC) without a prescription. However, in stronger doses, physicians frequently prescribe these medications to help relieve pain. All of these drugs can produce serious side effects if an overdose occurs, so many higher-dose versions are controlled by prescription.
Antihypertensives
Hypertension, the Mayo Clinic notes, may affect everyone eventually to a lesser or greater extent. For this reason, many high blood pressure medications exist. Doctors may prescribe antihypertensives, the most common of which fall under the thiazide or diuretic category. Physicians usually try these first, then try others if the full effect does not occur. Antihypertensives include hydrochlorothiazide, renin inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, also called ACE inhibitors, and angiotensin II receptor blockers. Other types of drugs used to fight high blood pressure include vasodilators, alpha blockers, central-acting agents, and alpha-beta blockers, the Mayo Clinic states. Combinations of various antihypertensives also may be used.
Diabetes Drugs
Type II diabetes medications focus on inducing the pancreas to either raise the level of insulin in a person's body to make more use of the glucose or decrease sugar production by the liver. The latter, called metformin, often may be prescribed first. Other medications that help insulin production include glipizide, glyburide, rosiglitazone, pioglitazone, sitagliptin, and regaglinide.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Narcotic Analgesics and Acetaminophen (Oral Route)
- U.S. National Library of Medicine: PubMed.gov: [Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner--on the 150th anniversary of the death of the discoverer of morphine]
- National Institutes of Health: High Blood Pressure
- Cleveland Clinic: Diabetes Overview
