Intraspinal Drug Delivery Systems

Many medications that are normally given orally or intravenously can be delivered directly into the spinal canal. The advantage of this delivery is that a much smaller dosages of medication can be used, thereby minimizing many side effects associated with other oral or intravenous use.Typically,  the intraspinal administration is 300 times more effective than the oral  dose. Morphine (and other opioids or narcotics) interacts with opioid receptors in the spinal cord to decrease pain impulses to the brain, thereby decreasing the brain’s perception of painful conditions. While developed for cancer pain, the intraspinal use of this medication has proven very effective in chronic benign (non-cancer) pain as well.