An increasing understanding of the physiology of pain, as well as patient friendly dosage forms and delivery techniques are giving providers improved tools to help patients manage their pain, reports healthcare therapeutics consulting firm Applied Data Research.

Applied Data Research says that its surveys showed that new and emerging pain delivery products that let patients to play an active role in the timing and dosing of their pain medication let them balance pain relief and medication side effects, and potentially improve quality-of-life.

The findings, as detailed in a new report, “Patient Controlled Pain Management: Drugs, Devices and Development Strategies,” found that several factors are converging to make pain management an attractive segment for market participants. Two key developments:

1. Current pain management philosophy is based on the premise of treating pain early and aggressively. That approach, in turn, is based on research that pain is tightly correlated with decreased quality of life, and increased incidence of anxiety and depression. It’s now believed that chronic pain causes the physiologic release of enzymes that can damage healthy tissue.

2. The aging population – particularly in North America and Western Europe, where the quality of medical care is high and consumers enjoy a relatively high standard of living – will result in a growing market of mature and elderly people who will need drug therapies and pain management for a variety of maladies associated with the aging process. These factors are attracting well-financed players and elevating alliance activity in this sector.