IPA COPYRIGHT: ASHP Three experiments are reported here, the first comparing analgesic tablets, the second soluble analgesics in different colors, and the third a new analgesic with a standard and placebo in arthritic patients. A consistent polyad design was used. This method is ideal for multiple comparisons because every possible pair of treatments is directly compared and the variability between first and last is thereby minimized. Thirty patients were admitted to the first trial, 24 to the second, and 24 to the third. All had definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis with pain of sufficient severity to require on-demand analgesics at least once a day. Drugs used in the first trial were Distalgesic (dextropropoxyphene and paracetomol (acetaminophen)) Pandol (paracetamol), Fortral (pentazocine) and placebo. Four soluble analgesics were compared in the second trial, Codis (aspirin and codeine), Solprin (aspirin), Distalgesic and placebo. In the third trial, Ciba-44328 (the dextrorotary isomer of 2-(dimethylaminomethyl)-1,2-diphenyl-3-butene-2-ol proprionate in the maleate form, a compound related to dextropropoxyphene,) paracetomol and placebo were used. Aspirin, Codis, and Distalgesic were the most effective analgesics tested, with paracetamol, pentazocine, and Ciba-44328 intermediate between these agents and placebo. Placebo given after an active analgesic was more effective than when given before; this phenomenon was not abolished by telling the patients that apparently idential tablets were, in fact, different or by making them different in color. The effectiveness of soluble placebo depended on its color, red being the most effective.
Propoxyphene; acetaminophen; comparison; alone and with propoxyphene; Aspirin; alone and with codeine; Codeine; Pentazocine; arthritis; therapy; Ba-44328; Analgesics and antipyretics; comparison; Ba-44328(Analgesics and antipyretics; Clinical studies; arthritis; Distalgesic; combination; Pandol; Fortral; Codis; combination; Solprin; Ciba-44328; HUMAN