It’s a great question, and it would certainly be wonderful to have a “silver bullet” medication that instantly quells pain without any side effects. Pain, however, resists single-medication treatments because it is a very complex phenomenon that involves both the mind and the body. Multiple pathways within the mind and body perceive and interpret pain signals, so it has proven very difficult, so far, for researchers to devise an ideal pain medication. Current science shows that a biopsychosocial approach that combines multiple different treatments (many of them not involving medication) often works better than an approach that relies solely on medication.