A comparison of the newer COX-2 drugs and older nonnarcotic oral analgesics.
The newer COX-2 drugs are safer analgesics than the older NSAIDs. At the usual dose used in osteoarthritis, they have less analgesic effect than the older NSAIDs. The non-narcotic analgesics such as acetaminophen, salicylate, NSAIDs, and the newer COX-2 drugs seem to have distinctly different mechanisms of action. In limited clinical trials, some of these drugs in combination give additive analgesia. Consideration should be given to using these drugs in combination, after suitable clinical trials, to enhance the efficacy of this category of analgesics.
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Department of Clinical Management, New York University School of Medicine, NY 10022, USA. analgesicdevel@worldnet.att.net