Morphine Plus Placebo vs Morphine Plus Acetaminophen for Acute Pain in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Intravenous (IV) acetaminophen is widely used in multimodal analgesia with opioids for the initial management of acute pain in emergency departments (EDs), but its additive benefit when combined with titrated morphine is uncertain.

Objective

To determine whether titrated IV morphine plus placebo is noninferior to titrated IV morphine plus acetaminophen for pain relief in the first hour in adults seen in the ED with acute traumatic or nontraumatic pain.

Design, setting, and participants

This multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled noninferiority clinical trial was conducted in 11 French EDs from December 3, 2019, to December 31, 2024, with 60 minutes of follow-up. Adults (aged ≥18 years) with severe acute pain (numeric rating scale [NRS] sc

SUBMITTER: Cattin G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12933283 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature