[Approaching new pharmacotherapy options in pain treatment].

The evolution of medicine is noticeable in most therapeutic areas, the worse the current therapeutic result, the more quick the improvement. This is especially true in such areas that require substantial social resources, namely oncology, diabetology and CNS diseases. Pain is not a disease, it is a symptom. Pain is one of the most important components of human suffering thus it deserves special attention. In recent years new formulations of old medicines were introduced rather than new medicines. Maybe ziconitide is the last pain killer with new mechanism of action which was approved by FDA in 2004. However, the new information and techniques are also appearing in the field of analgesia. Nowadays one can talk about genetic/epigenetic targets, RNA therapies, voltage-gated calcium channels, new pain receptors (TRPV1, TRPV4, NMDA, Nav receptors) regarding pain treatment, indicating that the practice of the pharmacotherapy of pain will change fundamentally in the immediate future. This paper is intended to give a short summary of these new options.