New Delhi, June 16 -- A recent study in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine suggests that some psychiatric medications could serve as alternatives to strong opioids for pain relief in emergency departments. The research, led by Akash Shanmugam, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), examined non-opioid medications available at San Francisco General Hospital and reviewed the existing medical literature. The goal was to create a focused list of medications for specific pain conditions.

Opioids can relieve pain, but their misuse has caused the US opioid crisis since the 1990s. Prescribing them too freely without considering their addictive nature has been a big problem. It is important to reduce opioi...