Two hundred male and female patients underwent a variety of
oral surgical procedures and were treated afterwards in four test groups. They took a combination of
orphenadrine (25 mg) and
acetaminophen (325 mg), either
drug alone, or placebo. A double-blind study design was used. All patients had moderately severe baseline
pain intensity; post-treatment
pain relief was recorded at 30 minutes, one, two, four and six hours. A back-up
analgesic (
codeine-ASA) was made available if needed.
Pain intensity difference (PID) and sums of
pain intensity difference (SPID) were calculated using established
analgesic study techniques. Statistical analyses indicated better
analgesic efficacy in both PID and SPID scores for the
orphenadrine-
acetaminophen combination over the three other treatments. This was evident at 30 minutes and continued through the sixth hour. Each active
drug, in turn, was also significantly better throughout than placebo for
pain relief. Sub-groups in each treatment regimen required additional
pain relief prior to six hours, with significantly more placebo than
orphenadrine-
acetaminophen patients needing remedication. Side-effect incidence was very low and randomly distributed among the four groups.