Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
-
Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. · Aug 1992
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialA new method for rate of analgesic onset: two doses of intravenous morphine compared with placebo.
A new method of frequent early pain assessments for 1 hour only was used to determine time of onset of analgesia after intravenous administration of 10 mg morphine, 5 mg morphine, or placebo in a double-blind study; 79 patients were randomized if they required parenteral analgesia in the early postoperative period. Pain intensity was determined by a four-point categoric verbal rating scale and on a verbal ordinal scale from 0 to 100 (0 = no pain, 100 = worst pain imaginable) during the first hour after analgesic administration. The onset time of analgesia, assessed by 50% of patients achieving 25% reduction from their baseline pain assessment, was significantly faster for 10 mg morphine compared with 5 mg morphine (p = 0.02) and placebo (p less than 0.01). More familiar analgesic efficacy measures, including the sum of pain intensity differences and time to next analgesic dose, similarly showed the superiority of 10 mg morphine to placebo in the first hour, confirming sensitivity according to the conventional paradigm.
-
Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. · Aug 1992
Comparative StudyDiffering effect of atropine on heart rate in Chinese and white subjects.
To determine if differences exist between Chinese and white subjects in their response to atropine and if the intrinsic heart rate and the autonomic contribution to the heart differ between the two races, eight white and eight Chinese males were studied. In all subjects the heart rate decreased after the first dose of atropine (0.003 mg/kg) with no difference in the bradycardia between the two races. ⋯ There was no difference in the intrinsic heart rate, in the relative vagal contribution, or in relative sympathetic contribution to the heart rate between the Chinese and white subjects. These data indicate that Chinese subjects are more sensitive to the effect of atropine, which is not related to the contribution of autonomic tone to the heart.