Long-term (four year) clinical trial with tenoxicam and basis therapy in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis

A four year clinical trial was carried out in 20 patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the first six months, they received in a double-blind design either tenoxicam or piroxicam 20 mg daily (10 cases per group), in addition to basis therapy with gold salts or D-penicillamine. From months 7-48 all patients received 20 mg tenoxicam daily. Evaluation of analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities showed a significant improvement with both compounds. This continued in the majority of patients for the next 3.5 years of the study, compared with the corresponding ones taken at baseline. Tolerability was found to be excellent to good.