Background It is estimated 1.5 billion of the global population suffer from chronic pain with prevalence increasing with demographics including age. It is suggested long term exposure to chronic could cause further health challenges reducing peoples quality of life. Therefore, it is imperative to use effective treatment options. Purpose We explored the current pharmaceutical treatments available for chronic pain management to better understand drug efficacy and pain reduction. Methods A systematic methodology was developed and published in PROSPERO (CRD42021235384). Keywords of opioids, acute pain, pain management, chronic pain, opiods, NSAIDs, and analgesics were used across PubMed, Science direct, ProQuest, Web of science, Ovid Psych INFO, PROSPERO, EBSCOhost, MEDLINE, ClinicalTrials.gov and EMBASE. All randomised controlled clinical trials, epidemiology and mixed-methods studies published in English between the 1st of January 1990 and 30th of April 2022 were included. Data synthesis A total of 119 studies were included. The data was synthesised using a tripartied statistical methodology of a meta analysis, pairwise meta analysis and network meta analysis. Limitations Small sample sizes, lack of uniformity with pain assessments and suboptimal clinical trial designs were observed within the pooled data. Conclusion Chronic pain is a public health problem that requires far more effective pharmaceutical interventions with minimal better side effect profiles which will aid to develop better clinical guidelines. The importance of understanding ubiquity of pain by clinicians, policy makers, researchers and academic scholars is vital to prevent social determinant which aggravates issues.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding

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