Those opioid doses are all super low, roughly equivalent to a single Tylenol 3. The alternative is a super high dose of acetaminophen. 1/4 your daily recommended maximum. At roughly 3x the acetaminophen + the fairly high dose ibuprofen I don't think there is anything really surprising about this.
You couldn't take that acetaminophen dosage for more than 8 hours with 2 hour dosing without hitting your daily maximum. I'm skeptical that opioid alternative with such a low dosage over such a short period of time has any real chance of being addition forming.
These are standard doses of all these medications. Its the dose of tylenol often used in the hospital and wasn't dosed every 2 hours it was dosed once. For the opiates we either give 1 or 2 pills, here they gave 1. Perfectly reasonable.
OTC standard dose for regular strength Tylenol is 1-2 capsules x 325mg. They are giving the patients 1000mg or the equivalent of two extra strength pills (500mg). While both are 'standard' doses, I think the poster's point is that they're comparing 'regular strength' opiates (5mg of oxy/hydrocodone) with extra strength acetaminophen (1000mg acetaminophen). If they wanted a proper comparison, they should compare 7.5 or 10mg of oxy/hydrocodone with 1000mg of acetaminophen. Also, because the oxy/hydrocodone pills they test also contain acetaminophen you'd think they'd test the efficacy of oxy/hydrocodone by themselves as well, but apparently that didn't cross their minds. It definitely looks to me like the combinations tested were chosen so as to get a predetermined result.
I'm not saying they are unreasonable doses but they are definitely low as far as opioid doses go. Apart from T1/T2s you can't get lower afaik.
My point is I don't see that replacing opioids in this case is really useful. I'm happy to admit I don't know the answer here but I'm skeptical that people going to the hospital and getting a single 5mg percocet/vicodin or even a 3-4 over ~8-12 hours are really at risk of addiction.
For 24/7 dosing that acetaminophen/ibuprofen combo is only safe once every 6 hours which from my experience is way too long for acetaminophen. Even on every 4 hours I find the last 1 hour is definitely very noticeable.
The median pain level after treatment was above "Distressing" (Pain level 4). That's not reasonable. It is unethical. And probably why the study was run in the Bronx rather than someplace like Manhattan where people are far more likely to have the means to get what they want and to do something about shoddy treatment.
You couldn't take that acetaminophen dosage for more than 8 hours with 2 hour dosing without hitting your daily maximum. I'm skeptical that opioid alternative with such a low dosage over such a short period of time has any real chance of being addition forming.