Nicotine, Chili Peppers Offer Post-Surgery Pain Relief

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Other options, including longer term release patches or lower dose patches, might ease the nausea, Habib said. "The use of nicotine for perioperative analgesia also needs to be studied in smokers, who are unlikely to suffer from the side effect of nausea," he said.

Nicotine patches are approved for use to help smokers quit cigarettes. However, previous studies have shown that nicotine also has some pain-relief benefits. In an earlier study, women who were given a nasal spray containing 3 milligrams of nicotine after a hysterectomy reported less pain or need for morphine, the Duke researcher said.

It's important to note that this study addressed pain related to surgery, not chronic pain, said Edwin W. McClesky, scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in Chevy Chase, Md., who was not involved with the research. Nicotine patches aren't an answer for chronic pain sufferers, he said.

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"Nicotine is a poor solution for anything because it is so addictive," McClesky said. The mechanism by which nicotine may help manage pain after surgery isn't yet known, he added, "because there are nicotine receptors in both the central and peripheral nervous systems."

Habib said short-term analgesic use of nicotine is not addictive. He said future studies will address different doses of nicotine and the drug's effect in different groups of people, such as smokers and women.

In the second study, researchers in Denmark found that purified capsaicin -- a colorless, odorless drug derived from chili peppers -- provided three days of pain relief for men recovering from hernia surgeries.

The researchers placed 1,000 micrograms of purified capsaicin directly into the wounds of approximately 20 men during surgery. The researchers compared the men's postoperative pain with another 20 men who underwent surgery with a placebo instead of capsaicin. Patients in the capsaicin group had significantly lower pain scores during the three days following surgery, the study authors said.

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