The analgesic effect of codeine as compared to imipramine in different human experimental pain models

Abstract

The hypoalgesic effect of single oral doses of 100 mg imipramine and 125 mg codeine was evaluated in a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, 3-way cross-over experiment including 18 healthy volunteers. Pain tests were performed before and 90, 180, 270, 360 and 450 min after medication. The tests included determination of pain tolerance thresholds to pressure, pain detection/tolerance thresholds to single electrical sural nerve stimulation and pain summation at tolerance threshold to repetitive electrical sural nerve stimulation (temporal summation) and pain experienced during the cold pressor test, rated as peak pain intensity, pain average intensity and discomfort. Compared to placebo, imipramine significantly increased pressure pain tolerance threshold ( P=0.03) and increased pain tolerance threshold ( P=0.05) and pain summation threshold ( P=0.03), but not pain detection threshold to electrical stimulation. Imipramine did not cause significant changes in pain perception during the cold pressor test. Codeine significantly increased pressure pain tolerance threshold ( P=0.02), pain detection ( P=0.04) and pain tolerance threshold ( P=0.01) and pain summation threshold ( P=0.02) to electrical stimulation. In addition, codeine reduced the pain experienced during the cold pressor test ( P=0.04–0.003). It is concluded that both imipramine and codeine inhibit temporal pain summation, whereas only codeine reduces cold pressor pain. Pain summation may be a key mechanism in neuropathic pain. Imipramine has a documented effect on such pain conditions on temporal summation. The present study showed that codeine also inhibits temporal summation, which is in line with the clinical observations indicating that opioids relieve neuropathic pain.