Introduction: International Association for the Study of Pain has defined pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. There is a need for new effective analgesic drugs with fewer side effects and minimum drug abuse liability. Flupirtine is a centrally acting, non-opioid analgesic agent with unique pharmacological properties.
Material and Methods: In vivo model used - Hot plate method. Flupirtine (27 mg/kg p.o) was administered in rats either alone or in combination with pentazocine (10 mg/kg i.p.).
The analgesic activity was studied by recording the reaction time after administration of the drug at frequent intervals up to 3 hrs. The results were analysed by ANOVA and Bonferroni’s test. P value < 0.05 was considered as significant.
Results: Administration of flupirtine, showed significant increase in reaction time as compared to control at all the time intervals. Its action started at 30 min. with a peak at 60 min. Pentazocine and the combination group showed significant increase in reaction time as compared to flupirtine at all the time intervals.
Conclusion: Flupirtine showed analgesic activity in this experimental model of pain. Its onset of action was similar to that of pentazocine. However, the degree of analgesia was significantly less than that of pentazocine. Combination of the two drugs resulted in potentiation of analgesia.
