COLUMBUS, Ohio --

A Columbus woman is one of the first sickle cell patients in the country to try using an implanted pump to administer medicine and treat pain.

It's called PRIALT, and Dr. Gladstone McDowell's eyes light up when he talks about it.

"It's a drug that was synthesized from the venom of a marine snail. It's non-narcotic and non-opioid," said McDowell, the medical director at Integrated Pain Solutions in Columbus, who sees firsthand the need for balanced pain relief.

"We want to treat pain, but make sure we give it for the right thing. The United States uses the vast majority of vicodin worldwide. We use the vast majority of short-acting opioids and we have much more of a problem with pharmaceutical overuse and abuse than other places do, but we still want to treat pain," said McDowell.

McDowell said he is proud that one of his sickle cell disease patients is among the first to use a the drug PRIALT with an implanted pump to treat her pain.

"People who have migraines, imagine that all over your body," said Shau'nea Young, who was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at the age of 2.

Young said that for most of her life, she has faced intense, throbbing pain.

Young was implanted with the pump in her abdomen in 2011. It releases doses of the pain drug PRIALT to relieve her symptoms. Young also has a control to release additional medication if she feels the onset of more severe pain.

"Press a button right when that pain hits and I can stop it faster. It's been wonderful. It works very well and sometimes I even forget about the pain button period," said Young.

McDowell said there are many perks to PRIALT, which works by blocking pain without becoming addictive.

"There's no tolerance; there's no dependence so people can't become addicted to it," said McDowell.

PRIALT has been used for several years, often by cancer patients, but McDowell said, using it for sickle cell patients could change the treatment of other patients, and usage of prescription pain drugs.