New non-opioid pain drug helps reduce pain after surgery
Randomised controlled trial: Subjects are randomly assigned to a test group, which receives the treatment, or a control group, which commonly receives a placebo. In 'blind' trials, participants do not know which group they are in; in ‘double blind’ trials, the experimenters do not know either. Blinding trials helps removes bias.
People: This is a study based on research using people.
A new drug for acute pain, which is not an opioid and works in a different way from current drugs, has been shown to reduce pain over a period of 48 hours after a 'tummy tuck' or bunion removal surgery. The drug, known as VX-548, works by blocking a sodium channel that is found on nerves in the peripheral nervous system. The trials found that people who received high-dose VX-548 had reduced acute pain compared to those given a non-active placebo treatment, however, the same effect was not seen for lower doses. An accompanying editorial says that limited conclusions can be made about the drug's effectiveness at this stage as it has not been directly compared with other painkillers, such as a codeine/paracetamol combination.
Journal/conference: New England Journal of Medicine
Research: Paper
Organisation/s: Vertex Pharmaceuticals
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