Many opioid drugs, originally made from the opium poppy, have been designed in the lab to relieve mild, moderate or severe pain. Different drugs provide certain levels of pain relief and work differently for individual patients. Some opioid drugs work for chronic or severe pain, while others help reduce or eliminate pain for a short term in patients who need temporary pain treatment.
Weak Opioids
Mild or weak opioids usually come in fixed-dose combinations along with aspirin or acetaminophen, according to the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Doctors may prescribe them for short-term use in oral forms and not usually for moderate or severe pain. Codeine may help relieve severe pain when weaker non-opioid drugs cannot control pain, but it has side effects of nausea and vomiting. Codeine also has a cough-suppressant effect. Doctors prescribe hydrocodone, usually combined with acetaminophen or ibuprofen, for relief of minor pain, including pain from dental work.
Stronger Relief
Morphine, a strong opioid, provides relief from moderate to severe pain. Medical professionals administer it though liquids or tablets and slow-release capsules or tablets. Patients usually receive morphine in short-acting release form at first, according to CancerHelp UK. Patients take the medication every several hours unless doctors determine more doses are needed. Slow-release medicine often follows the initial short-acting medication. Morphine can be converted into heroin, an illegal opiate, through a chemical process.
Different Preparations
Hydromorphone, similar in effect to morphine, works for patients who have side effects with morphine. Fentanyl, another strong opioid, works for pain through tablets and lozenges or absorbs into the skin through a patch. Some patients use other painkillers along with fentanyl, such as morphine or oxycodone.
Moderate Doses
Oxycodone works for bone and nerve pain, CancerHelp UK notes. Doctors prescribe oxycodone in liquids, capsules or slow-release tablets, usually for mild or moderate pain. It has a wide variety of doses and has been described as a weak or strong opioid, depending on dosage. Buprenorphine works similarly to fentanyl through patches. Patients who have difficulty swallowing pills or medicines benefit from the buprenorphine patches. Doctors may prescribe another medication to provide immediate relief, along with buprenorphine, because it can take about 24 hours for the drug to work.
Short Term
Methadone, used in the treatment of heroin addiction, may be used for diseases of the nervous system, but it is difficult to manage, according to the University of Michigan, and may lead to prolonged sedation. Doctors may prescribe meperidine for short-term, moderate pain, and taper off the doses.
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