Compare doses when new medicines are added to your plan, especially when medicines are changed from one route of administration to another. A common error that nurses and physicians make in cancer pain management is changing from injections to pills using the same dose. For most medicines, this results in the dose being decreased by nearly two thirds. Pain will return because the dose is not high enough. Many doctors and nurses are unfamiliar with equianalgesic dosing.
Pain medicines taken orally take about forty-five to sixty minutes to begin to bring relief.
These doses are approximate comparisons based on prescribing information from manufacturers. Individual response may vary. Clinical practice guideline no. 9. Management of Cancer Pain. Other Medicines Used for Pain Relief Analgesics alone don't always produce total pain relief.