Clinical therapeutics
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Clinical therapeutics · May 2000
Review Comparative StudyOver-the-counter analgesics and antipyretics: a critical assessment.
It is just 100 years since the introduction of aspirin to medicine. Since then, aspirin and its derivatives have been joined by acetaminophen, and the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs--ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and ketoprofen--as the only over-the-counter (OTC) agents approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the short-term treatment of pain, headache, dysmenorrhea, and fever. Recently the prescription use of aspirin has expanded to include a number of antiplatelet indications. ⋯ Although all of the OTC analgesic/antipyretic agents seem to share a common mechanism of prostaglandin inhibition, there are important differences in their pharmacology, efficacy, and side-effect profiles. Considering their often-unsupervised use, the risk-benefit ratio of this class of drugs has been extremely favorable. However, when used inappropriately, even these drugs pose significant risks to certain patient populations.
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Clinical therapeutics · May 2000
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialCombination hydrocodone and ibuprofen versus combination oxycodone and acetaminophen in the treatment of postoperative obstetric or gynecologic pain.
The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of combination hydrocodone and ibuprofen with that of combination oxycodone and acetaminophen in the treatment of moderate to severe postoperative obstetric or gynecologic pain. ⋯ In this study, a 2-tablet dose of combination hydrocodone 7.5 mg and ibuprofen 200 mg was as effective as a 2-tablet dose of combination oxycodone 5 mg and acetaminophen 325 mg in the treatment of moderate to severe postoperative obstetric or gynecologic pain. Both treatments were superior to placebo. The results of this study suggest that the combination of hydrocodone 7.5 mg and ibuprofen 200 mg may offer prescribers an additional option in combination pain therapy.