Double-Blind Comparison of Alclofenac and Aspirin in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In a double-blind short term cross-over study, designed to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of alclofenac, 500 mg thrice daily against aspirin, 866 mg thrice daily, fifty patients in a chronic stage of classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis (according to American Rheumatism Association (1959) criteria) were selected. The criteria of assessment included pain, function and morning stiffness. The patients' and physician's overall preferences and opinion on tolerance were also recorded. Forty-eight patients completed the study successfully. The study showed that both drugs were significantly effective in relieving pain but there was no difference between the two preparations and neither drug made any improvement to function or morning stiffness. The patients' and physician's preferences and opinion on the therapeutic efficacy were almost equally divided between the two drugs. However, the instances of side-effects were a little higher (44%) with aspirin than with alclofenac (34%). It appears from this study that in chronic rheumatoid arthritis the analgesic activity of 1·5 g alclofenac is equivalent to 2·6 g (approx.) of aspirin.

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit: