Conjoint clinic on pain and analgesia

Efforts to standardize the reporting of pain

In an effort to develop a method for standardizing patients' reports of pain intensity, we tested seven different approaches to employing patients' ratings of four consistent types of pain as a means of correcting their reports (the average of the four standard pain measures, the average of the greater pains--finger in a door and tooth drilling, the average of the lesser pains--blister and leg cramp, the predicted back pain VAS from a regression of the standard pains, a conversion to the same scale based on population mean, the difference between individual mean and population mean of the four standard pain measures, and the difference between individual range and population range of the four standard pain measures). None of the adjustments proved to be a substantial improvement over the unstandardized approach. The best adjuster was the approach that used the average of the greater pain scores.

A controlled evaluation of orally administered aspirin, dipyrone and placebo in patients with post-operative pain

A double-blind controlled trial was carried out in 267 patients with moderate to severe pain following episiotomy to compare the pain relief provided over a 6-hour period by a single oral dose of 500 mg dipyrone, 500 mg aspirin or placebo. The results showed that dipyrone and aspirin were both significantly superior to placebo. Pain relief with dipyrone was already apparent at 30 minutes after drug intake, and was of significantly longer duration than that of aspirin. No side-effects were reported.

Management of pain after abdominal surgery: dipyrone compared with pethidine

1 Dipyrone 2.5 g was compared with pethidine 100 mg in a double-blind parallel group study. 2 Patients with moderate or severe postoperative pain following abdominal surgery received one of the two drugs intramuscularly. 3 The two treatment groups were homogeneous when analyzed by age, weight, height, sex, and initial severity of pain. 4 The onset degree and duration of pain relief afforded by both drugs was similar when the groups were compared as a whole or according to initial pain level. 5 No side-effects were attributed to either drug in this study.

A double-blind comparison of parenteral dipyrone and pethidine in the treatment of post-operative pain

A double-blind trial was carried out in 100 patients with moderate to severe post-operative pain to compare the analgesic effectiveness over a 6-hour period of single intramuscular injections of 2.5 g dipyrone and 100 mg pethidine. Maximum pain relief was seen 2 hours after drug administration in both groups and there was no statistically significant difference in responses. No side-effects were reported.