A Model to Evaluate Mild Analgesics in Oral Surgery Outpatients

A model was developed to evaluate mild analgesics in an oral surgery outpatient clinic population. On a report form, patients recorded starting pain and then pain intensities, relief responses, and side effects hourly for 3 hr after drug administration. The treatments were randomly allocated to patients on a single-dose-only basis, and the double-blind technique was used. The first of two studies compared codeine 30 mg, aspirin 650 mg, codeine 30 mg with aspirin 650 mg, and placebo in 128 subjects. The second study compared codeine 60 mg, acetaminophen 600 mg, and codeine 60 mg with acetaminophen 600 mg and placebo in 160 subjects. Time-effect curves were generated for both pain relief and pain relief and pain intensity difference (PID). First-hour scores, peak scores, and total scores were statistically analyzed by parametric and nonparametric factorial analysis. Both aspirin 650 mg and acetaminophen 600 mg proved superior to placebo (p less than 0.01) for all measures of effect with both parametric or nonparametric analyses, while codeine 30 mg was not significantly superior to placebo in any analysis. Codeine 60 mg proved significantly superior to placebo for certain measures of effect when analyzed with the nonparametric model. There was no significant interaction between either aspirin or acetaminophen and codeine.