Article date: August 2003
By: Thomas Sycha, Burkhard Gustorff, Stephan Lehr, Adrian Tanew, Hans‐Georg Eichler1, Leopold Schmetterer, in Volume 56, Issue 2, pages 165-172
Aims Non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are believed to counteract inflammation and inflammation‐induced sensitization of nociceptors by inhibiting peripheral prostaglandin synthesis. We evaluated an experimental pain model for NSAIDs, that included an inflammatory component to mimic clinical inflammatory pain conditions.
Methods The study was performed in a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, two‐way crossover design on 32 healthy volunteers. A small skin area of the proximal upper leg was irradiated with a UVB source using three times the individually estimated minimal erythema dose. Twenty hours after irradiation skin temperature, heat pain threshold and tolerance in sunburn spot were measured using a thermal sensory testing. These measurements were repeated 2 h after medication of either 800 mg ibuprofen as single oral dose or placebo capsules. Effects of ibuprofen on outcome parameters were assessed with analyses of covariance (ancova).
Results Placebo did not affect heat pain threshold or tolerance. By contrast, ibuprofen increased heat pain threshold by 1.092 °C [confidence interval (CI) 0.498, 1.695; P = 0.0008) compared with placebo. Heat pain tolerance also increased significantly by 1.618 °C (CI 1.062, 2.175; P = 0.0001).
Conclusion The pain model we evaluated was well tolerated in all subjects and the effects of ibuprofen were highly significant. This model is simple, sensitive to NSAIDs’ effects and therefore has potential for future experimental pain studies.
DOI: 10.1046/j.0306-5251.2003.01869.x
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