Difunisal in general practice

Abstract

A large-scale, double-blind comparative study was carried out in general practice to assess the relative efficacy and tolerance of difunisal and aspirin in patients suffering from acute painful conditions such as sprains and trains, osteoarthritis, etc. Patients received either 250 mg or 500 mg difunisal twice daily, or 600 mg aspirin 4-times daily for 5 days. The results of subjective assessments of pain relief from the daily records of 1902 patients (967 on diflunisal, 935 on aspirin), and the overall assessment of response by both doctors and patients, showed that diflunisal was significantly better than aspirin. Gastric side-effects were more common and more severe in patients receiving aspirin, and more often led to withdrawal of treatment.