Double-blind comparison of an acetaminophen-codeine-caffeine combination in oral surgery pain

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the contribution of low dosages of codeine and caffeine when added to acetaminophen. Subjects were dental outpatients undergoing oral surgery involving bone removal. This was a single-dose, parallel group, double-blind assay evaluting 99 subjects. The treatment groups were acetaminophen 1000 mg, acetaminophen 1000 mg + codeine 16 mg + caffeine 30 mg and placebo. The results demonstrated that both active treatments were superior to placebo. Overall, the combination was slightly better than acetaminophen alone. The advantage of the combination appeared more evident in the "severe" baseline pain group.