European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF CODEINE AND TRAMADOL CO-INGESTION ON PAIN TOLERANCE, ALERTNESS AND LOCOMOTIVE ACTIVITY IN RATS

Ibeachu C. P. and *Olorunfemi O. J.

ABSTRACT

This study was done to investigate the effect of codeine and tramadol co-ingestion on pain tolerance, alertness and locomotive activity in rats. A total number of twenty-five[25] wistar rats of both sex (male and female) weighing between 70-140g were collected and divided into 5 experimental groups of control group, codeine group, tramadol group, combined codeine and tramadol (group 1) and combined codeine and tramadol (group 2) and with 5 rats in each group. The rats in the group 1 (control) were given saline water, while the rats in the group 2, 3, 4 and 5 were given 0.1ml of codeine, 0.2ml of tramadol, 0.1ml + 0.1ml of codeine and tramadol (group 1) and 0.2 + 0.2ml of codeine and tramadol (group 2) respectively for 10 days. The rats were administered with the drugs every other day and observed after each treatment day for the effect of the drugs on alertness using passive avoidance, pain tolerance using analgesy meter and locomotive activity using navigation box and inverted screen. The measurement of latency on all the task was taken for 5 minutes maximum. The results of the study were analysed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) and presented as mean value standard error of mean (±S.E.M). The variation and the statistical significance of the groups were determined by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and turkey post Hoc test. The finding showed that ingestion of codeine increased pain tolerance and locomotive activity but had no significant effect on alertness; ingestion of tramadol had a positive increasing effect (p<0.05) on pain tolerance, alertness and locomotive activity; co-ingestion of codeine and tramadol (0.1ml + 0.1ml) significantly increased (p<0.05) pain tolerance, decreased (p>0.05) alertness and also decreased or increased locomotive activity; co-ingestion of codeine and tramadol (0.2ml + 0.2ml) significantly increased (p<0.05) pain tolerance, decreased (p>0.05) alertness and either decreased or increased locomotive activity. It is therefore concluded that co-ingestion of codeine and tramadol has the ability to alter the pain tolerance, alertness and locomotive activity in rats.

Keywords: Tramadol, Codeine, Pain tolerance, Alertness, Locomotive activity.