The potentiation of narcotic analgesics with phenothiazines

Potentiation of narcotic analgesics with phenothiazines have been used for preoperative and postoperative analgesia for a number of years by the podiatric community. The agents most frequently cited in studies are the combination of meperidine with either the phenothiazines chlorpromazine, trimeprazine, or promethazine. Due to the fact that the double-blind clinical studies of pain are mainly subjective, and difficult to quantify, the usefulness of phenothiazines for the sole purpose of potentiation of analgesia is questionable, especially in view of the many side effects of this group of drugs.