Double-Blind Placebo Controlled Oral Analgesic Comparison of Butorphanol and Pentazocine in Patients with Moderate to Severe Post-Operative Pain

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Abstract
A double-blind, randomized trial was conducted in 120 post-surgical patients to evaluate the oral analgesic activity of butorphanol tartrate (4 mg and 8 mg) and pentazocine HCl (50 mg) as compared to placebo. Both doses of butorphanol as well as pentazocine proved to be significantly (p <0.05) more effective than placebo. Butorphanol 4 mg and pentazocine 50 mg were never significantly different from each other, while butorphanol 8 mg was significantly better than both butorphanol 4 mg as well as pentazocine 50 mg in several instances, demonstrating a significant dose effect relationship for butorphanol. All of the active treatments provided maximum pain relief within 1 to 2 hours and were effective over 4 hours. In contrast to the other treatments, none of the 8 mg butorphanol patients required remedication during the 4-hour observation period. Generally, the incidence of side-effects appeared low.