A dose of 60 mg oral codeine is equivalent to how many mg of aspirin?

A dose of 60 mg oral codeine is equivalent to how many mg of aspirin?

• A. 50 mg aspirin
• B. 260 mg aspirin
• C. 650 mg aspirin
• D. 1000 mg aspirin

Answer: (C)

Analgesic potency comparisons across drug classes are used to estimate how much of one drug would provide a similar pain relief as another. A typical dose of codeine (about sixty milligrams) provides analgesia that is roughly equivalent to about six hundred fifty milligrams of aspirin. This reflects how codeine’s opioid-mediated relief compares with aspirin’s non-opioid, anti-inflammatory mechanism; the equivalence is approximate because metabolism and individual response vary, but the cross-drug match of sixty milligrams of codeine to roughly six hundred fifty milligrams of aspirin is the standard reference. The other options don’t fit because they represent doses that are either less than or more than the approximate analgesic effect that sixty milligrams of codeine yields.

Analgesic potency comparisons across drug classes are used to estimate how much of one drug would provide a similar pain relief as another. A typical dose of codeine (about sixty milligrams) provides analgesia that is roughly equivalent to about six hundred fifty milligrams of aspirin. This reflects how codeine’s opioid-mediated relief compares with aspirin’s non-opioid, anti-inflammatory mechanism; the equivalence is approximate because metabolism and individual response vary, but the cross-drug match of sixty milligrams of codeine to roughly six hundred fifty milligrams of aspirin is the standard reference.

The other options don’t fit because they represent doses that are either less than or more than the approximate analgesic effect that sixty milligrams of codeine yields.