Oral nalbuphine in postpartum pain.

One hundred twenty-one patients with postpartum pain caused by uterine cramp or episiotomy pain were the subjects of a randomized, double-blind, single-dose study of oral nalbuphine (N), 15 mg (N = 39); codeine (C), 60 mg (N = 42); and placebo (N = 40) for analgesia. Observations were made over 6 hr. There were significant differences for sum of pain intensity differences and total pain relief between the active drugs and placebo but not between N and C. Time to onset of analgesia favored N (mean = 0.65 min) over C (mean = 0.74 min), but the analgetic effect of N diminished more rapidly at this dose. Results were the same for both uterine cramp and episiotomy pain. Adverse effects were of the narcotic type and of the same incidence for the two active drugs. Two new parameters for determining analgetic effect are introduced: number of dropouts per dose and number of subjects with zero analgetic effect.