A team of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina has discovered that a commonly used drug, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), could help reduce pain after surgery.
NAC is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating conditions like acetaminophen poisoning and liver damage. Now, scientists believe it may also be useful for pain management, particularly in reducing the need for opioids after surgery.
In a recent study, researchers tested NAC on patients undergoing spinal surgery. The results were promising—patients who received NAC reported less pain and needed fewer opioid painkillers compared to those who did not receive the drug.
This finding is significant because opioids, while effective, can lead to dependence and addiction when used over time. Finding ways to manage pain while reducing opioid use is a major goal in modern medicine.
Dr. Sylvia Wilson, one of the study’s lead researchers, has been focused on improving post-surgery pain management while minimizing opioid use.
She partnered with Dr. Michael Scofield, a scientist who has been studying NAC’s effects on the brain, particularly in areas related to pain and addiction. Their collaboration led to a clinical trial testing whether NAC could provide relief for patients recovering from spinal surgery.
During the study, some patients were given NAC, while others received a saline solution as a placebo. The team then monitored their recovery for 48 hours. Patients who received NAC needed 19% fewer doses of opioids and waited longer before requesting pain medication.
Additionally, they reported feeling less overall pain. Even more interestingly, the benefits of NAC lasted beyond the time the drug was expected to stay in the body.
This long-lasting effect was not surprising to Dr. Scofield, who had previously observed similar results in lab studies related to heroin addiction. His earlier research suggested that NAC could influence how the brain processes pain and addiction, which might explain its lasting effects on post-surgery pain relief.
Encouraged by these results, the research team is now expanding their study. They are enrolling patients undergoing minimally invasive hysterectomies to see if NAC provides similar pain relief in different types of surgeries. By gathering more data, they hope to confirm that NAC is both effective and safe for a wider range of surgical procedures.
Changing standard medical practices takes time and strong evidence. Dr. Wilson and her team are committed to conducting larger trials to prove that NAC can be a reliable option for post-surgery pain management. If successful, their research could help reduce reliance on opioids, improving patient safety and comfort.
This study offers new hope for better pain management in the future. With further research, NAC could become a widely used tool to help patients recover from surgery with less pain and fewer risks associated with opioid medications. The study’s findings were published in Pain Management.
If you care about pain, please read studies about how to manage gout with a low-purine diet, and a guide to eating right for arthritis.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the link between processed foods and chronic diseases, and avoid these 8 foods to ease arthritis pain.
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