PHARM113 Pharmacology for Nursing

Introduction:

Many patients suffering from chronic or acute pain prefer non prescription medications like medicinal herbs for pain relief. Herbal medicines are the most commonly used form of complementary and alternative medications in the world. This paper reviews the medicinal herbs given for patients with pain complaints and explains the potential side effects and medicinal interactions of different herbs. Nursing implications related to pain management and care of such patient has also been provided.

Review of major herbs for treatment of pain and their potential side effects and medication interaction:

Chamomile, kava kava and capsaicin are common herbs given for pain relief. The side effects and medication interaction details for the herbs are as follows:

Chamomile: Chamomile is a medicinal plant that has anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, healing and sedative properties. The oil of chamomile contains compounds having anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic activity (Singh et al., 2011). The potential side-effect of the herbs includes contact dermatitis, drowsiness and allergic reactions in patient who are allergic to daisy family plants. The drug is likely to have interactions when used with other alcohol containing medications like metronidazole. It also has additive effects with CNS depressants. It’s use should also be checked when used with herbs containing anticoagulant properties like ginger, Gingko and many others (Vallerand, Sanoski & Deglin, 2016). 

Kava kava: Kava kava is a herbal medicine that is given to patients for pain relief and addressing insomnia. It has centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxant properties. Some of the adverse side effect of the drug includes dizziness, headache, pupil dilation, hepatotoxicty, allergic skin reactions, weight loss and decrease in platelet levels. Kava kava also has additive effect with alprazolam and anti platelet agents. It also has effect on CNS depressants. When used with natural-natural products like Niacin, it increased risk of liver damage. It is also necessary to consider the use of this drug due to interactions with other drugs having sedative properties (Vallerand, Sanoski & Deglin, 2016).

Capsaicin: Capsaicin is an alkaloid found in chili pepper fruit and the spicy flavor in the fruit is given by capsaicin. It has analgesic property and it hinders pain perception by the release of pain relieving endorphins. The adverse side effect of the medicinal herb includes pain after application in skin and transient burning. It has no significant drug to drug interaction (Reyes-Escogido et al., 2011).

Nursing implications:

The nurses need to take the following steps for care of patients with pain:

1. Most patients are likely to develop anxiety after taking pain medications. Hence, it will be necessary for nurse to assess degree of anxiety and sedation in patient after giving herbs like kava kava.
2. In case of applying chamomile in skin of patients for pain relief, it will be necessary for nurse to observe size and character of affected skins. The sleep pattern and anxiety level of patient should also be evaluated after giving the herbal supplement.
3. When capsaicin is given for chronic pain, then nurses have the responsibility to assess intensity of pain both before and after giving the medicinal herb.
4. Nurses must assess environmental or cultural factors of patient that might be contributing to pain.
5. Nurses should check pain score or pain status of patient at regular intervals to decrease the anxiety of students and promptly take actions for pain.
6. While providing any pain medication to patients, nurses must also determine other medications that the client is taking to minimize drug to drug interactions.
7. Patients sleeping pattern and bowel elimination should also be checked as these are common side effects of most pain relied related medications (Brown et al. , 2017).

Conclusion:

The paper summarized the potential side effects and medicinal interaction for herbal medicine given to patients for pain relief.  The discussion of nursing implications for pain management and care of patient gives the indication that nursing assessment and intervention plays a major role in the recovery of patient and maintaining their safety during care.

Reference

Brown, D., Edwards, H., Seaton, L., & Buckley, T. (2017). Lewis's Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Reyes-Escogido, M.D.L., Gonzalez-Mondragon, E.G. & Vazquez-Tzompantzi, E., (2011). Chemical and pharmacological aspects of capsaicin. Molecules, 16(2), pp.1253-1270.

Singh, O., Khanam, Z., Misra, N., & Srivastava, M. K. (2011). Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.): an overview. Pharmacognosy reviews, 5(9), 82.

Vallerand, A. H., Sanoski, C. A., & Deglin, J. H. (2016). Davis's Canadian Drug Guide for Nurses. FA Davis.

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