The FDA approved a new type of pain reliever that doesn't include opioids. CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers your questions about the side effects and the unusual history behind the discovery of this medication. #cnn #cnnnews #journavx

For the first time in more than 25 years, the FDA has approved a new pain medication. It's called Suzetragine or Gernavax. Just for context, the last pain medication approved was Celebrex, and that was back in 1998. So no surprise, we get a lot of questions about this. Like this one from Allie in Marin County, California. She asks, will it make you loopy like the other medications? I can't take any pain meds because I feel like I'm on another planet. We get a lot of questions like this, Allie. So first things first. The most common side effects in the clinical trials with this medication were itching, muscle spasms, and rash. Now, to be fair, as more and more people take the medication, we may hear about different side effects that emerge. But based on what we know so far, this medication doesn't really give people that euphoric feeling that you get with opioids, for example. That's probably because of how this drug works. Opioids, which have been prescribed to many people for pain, they sort of work by dulling the sensation of pain in the brain. The brain is where pain is processed. That's why people get that sort of loopy feeling. But this new medication seems to actually work at the site of pain, where the pain is initially being processed, and it changes how the pain signals from there are actually transmitted to the brain. I also got to tell you something interesting, Allie. The story of how researchers were inspired to develop a drug like this is really fascinating. It happened 25 years ago, after they learned about a family of firewalkers in Pakistan who could walk over hot coals without flinching. Importantly, they could feel the sensation of the coals. They could even feel the heat of the coals, but they could not feel the pain. Turned out this family lacked a gene that allowed for pain signals, and by recreating the effect of that gene, they were able to develop Suzetragine. Pretty amazing story. Now, doctors stress that this medication might not be the right drug for everyone or for every type of pain. It costs about $15 per pill. It's supposed to take you every 12 hours as needed, but I'll tell you, it certainly seems like a welcome addition to the toolbox for treating pain.