A Brief History Of Painkillers

By Author: Thomas Strickland
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A Brief History of Painkillers

As long as there has been man, there has been pain. And as long as there has been civilization, probably even before Mesopotamian culture, there have been painkillers. Humans have turned to prayer, sacrifice, spiritualism, and folk medicine, as well as herbal remedies, tonics, and poultices. Long before the alchemists of Europe, China was practicing the traditional medicine that many trust in still today.

One of the most popular painkillers today, opioids have been used in medicine for literally thousands of years - in the form of opium.

In the 19th Century, medicine had a revolution of sorts. Whereas before people blamed sin, demons, and imbalances of bile for pain and illness, the discover of microscopic organisms like bacteria and even viruses expanded human understanding of illness and pain. Quickly, truly effective treatments for pain began to develop.

The New Old Guard of Painkillers

Aspirin may be the oldest of modern painkillers. It is thought that the ancient Greeks used a form of aspirin called salicin as early as the 5th Century BC. Aspirin came into ...
... modern scientific use in 1829. acetaminophen (Tylenol), the other most popular over-the-counter painkiller, was developed in 1893.

Fifty or so years later, ibuprofen - used in Motrin, Advil, and Naproxen - was discovered. However, none of these painkillers had established the hold on the market that they have today. Instead, opiates like morphine, opium, and heroin had the masses under their control. For a time, there was a serious epidemic of addiction in the United States as opiates were widely available through mail order catalogs - even Sears sold them! Of course, it is still a problem today, but less so.

The Need for Another

America was still a growing superpower with a large industrial and mining workforce, but with a burgeoning service industry that offered plenty of desk-jobs in the new economy. Factory workers suffered from manual labor, miners had awful injuries and physical afflictions, and desk workers were developing severe back pain conditions from sitting all day long.

Pharmaceutical companies were pushing to create a better, less addictive alternative to existing painkillers derived from opium - the ones that were causing all the addiction issues. It was not until 1977 that the answer was born.

Tramadol Debuts, Ultram a Success

The first incarnation to emerge successfully from necessity was tramadol, which became an immediate hit. Today, of course, we know that tramadol is the generic form of Ultram - one of the most widely used and effective analgesics for people with moderate to moderately severe pain. Then, though, tramadol was new and alien sounding. Despite people's reservations, it began to be copied and used across the world in a firestorm of popularity, because it was so effective at relieving pain and had minimal side effects and risk of addiction.

It has been around for 60 years now, and is still growing in popularity. Every year, new uses are discovered. The future is bright for this drug and the patients who benefit from it. Ultram has long been used to treat various types of chronic pain, including back, neck, and joint pain. It is now used for all sorts of injuries, surgeries, and conditions, including Restless Leg Syndrome, withdrawal, fibromyalgia, diabetic neuropathy, migraine headaches, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and premature ejaculation.