How Are Adjuvant Medications Such as Corticosteroids and NSAIDs Used for Pain Management?
Adjuvant medications to complement surgical and opioid-based techniques for pain management are an important and often-used modality. NSAIDs and corticosteroids have a useful role in pain management for patients in palliative care. In patients for whom they provide sufficient analgesia, NSAIDs possess several advantages, including widespread availability, ease of administration through oral formulation, acceptance by patients and families, and low relative cost. Corticosteroids are indicated as adjuvant analgesics for several pain scenarios in palliative care, such as bone, visceral, and neuropathic pain in people with advanced cancer and those with spinal cord compression. Because corticosteroids have beneficial effects on other commonly co-occurring symptoms such as anorexia and cachexia, nausea and vomiting, immune-mediated diarrhea, and bowel obstruction, they warrant consideration as co-analgesics in patients with pain and concurrent symptoms. This chapter describes the evidence-based uses for two common adjuvant medications: steroids and nonsteroidal antiinflammatories.
