Double-blind comparison of etodolac and piroxicam in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

A study was carried out to compare the efficacy and tolerability of etodolac and piroxicam in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Sixty patients entered this double-blind, parallel study and after a wash-out period of up to 2 weeks were randomly assigned to receive 200 mg etodolac twice daily or 20 mg piroxicam once daily for 12 weeks. Efficacy and tolerability assessments were made after 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks. Patients in the etodolac group demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the number of tender joints and the duration of morning stiffness after 12 weeks, as did the piroxicam-treated patients. In addition, the etodolac-treated patients had significant improvement according to the patients' and physician's global evaluations, pain intensity, number of swollen joints, and grip strength. There were significant differences between therapies favouring etodolac for the assessments of the number of tender joints and the physician's global evaluation by the end of the study. Forty-seven percent (47%) of 15 etodolac-treated patients compared with 7% of 15 piroxicam-treated patients showed improvement according to the physician's global evaluation at Week 12. Similarly, the patients' global evaluation showed that 40% of etodolac-treated patients and 19% of piroxicam-treated patients had improved by the end of therapy. Both therapies were well tolerated. There were no significant differences between groups in the incidence of any adverse reactions or the frequency of withdrawals.