Society Logo
ME/CFS Australia Ltd
Please click here to donate ME/CFS South Australia Inc
 
 
Facebook
 
ME/CFS SOUTH AUSTRALIA INC

Registered Charity 3104

Email:
sacfs@sacfs.asn.au

Mailing address:

PO Box 322,
Modbury North,
South Australia 5092

Phone:
1300 128 339

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday,
10am - 4pm
(phone)

ME/CFS South Australia Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.

Disclaimer

ME/CFS South Australia Inc aims to keep members informed of various research projects, diets, medications, therapies, news items, etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.

Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this Web site are not necessarily the official views of the Society or its Committee and are not simply an endorsement of products or services.

Become a Member
DOCX Application Form (Word, 198 KB)
Why become a member?

Tramadol/Paracetamol Improves Quality of Life in Chronic Pain Patients

Monday 3 August 2015

 

Please Note: Paracetamol is known as acetaminophen in the US and Japan. The following article comes from the US.

From Fibromyalgia News Today:

 

Capsules
 

Tramadol/Acetaminophen Improves Quality of Life in Chronic Pain Patients


July 31st, 2015

Fibromyalgia patients who were given analgesic in a randomized, double-blind study experienced a reduction in pain and an improvement in health-related quality of life. Before the study, patients experiencing pain had significant impairment of their health-related quality of life, but during the study, the patients’ pain relief directly correlated to an increase in health-related quality of life.

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and collaborators and other institutions were supported by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., to conduct the study. The study, entitled, “Impact of Fibromyalgia Pain on Health-Related Quality of Life Before and After Treatment With Tramadol/Acetaminophen,” was published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

A total of 313 fibromyalgia patients with moderate-to-severe pain were recruited for the study. Patients received tramadol/acetaminophen four times a day, every day, for up to a possible allotment of 91 days. The ratio of tramadol to acetaminophen was 1-to-8. The two medications were selected to be given together because tramadol and acetaminophen work through different mechanisms to achieve the goal of pain relief.

At baseline, patients were evaluated for pain using the visual analog scale (VAS), where no pain is a score of 0 and extreme pain is a score of 100 mm. Patients were grouped into four categories based on pain score and evaluated for differences in outcome measures from the beginning of the study to the end, then compared against each other. The outcome measures included patient ratings on the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36), the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), and the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) sleep questionnaire.

Overall, the enrolled fibromyalgia patients had a worse SF-36 scale score than the average United States citizen, and their scores were worse than those of congestive heart failure patients. The poor scores, indicative of an impaired health-related quality of life, correlated to the greatest amount of severe pain. When the treatment group of patients took tramadol/acetaminophen, they saw a significant reduction in pain. This led to a significant improvement in health-related quality of life in terms of SF-36 physical function, role physical, bodily pain, and physical summary scales. They were further able to improve their FIQ scales in terms of pain, stiffness, and doing jobs.

“Moderate-to-severe fibromyalgia pain significantly impairs health-related quality of life, and effective pain relief in these patients significantly increases health-related quality of life,” wrote the authors. Clinicians should be aware of their patients’ health-related quality of life and suggest analgesics when appropriate to reduce pain and improve quality of life.


Maureen Newman is a researcher by trade, and brings her knowledge of the lab to BioNews Texas. Currently, she is serving as a PhD student at University of Rochester, and working towards a career of research in biomaterials for drug delivery and regenerative medicine. She is an integral part of Dr. Danielle Benoit’s laboratory, where she is investigating bone-homing therapeutics for osteoporosis treatment. She is a senior science and research columnist for BioNews Texas.

© BioNews Services 2015. All rights reserved.

 

The above originally appeared here.

 


Arrow right

More Fibromyalgia News

 


 

blog comments powered by Disqus
Previous Previous Page