The relative bioavailability of paracetamol after rectal administration of suppositories containing a mixture of paracetamol, codeine phosphate and buclizine hydrochloride in healthy volunteers.
'New' and 'old' suppositories (6 months and 30 months since manufacture) containing 800 mg paracetamol, 16 mg codeine phosphate and 12.5 mg buclizine hydrochloride in an identical base were administered to 10 normal volunteers at an interval of 2 weeks. Blood samples were taken at intervals up to 300 minutes after administration for estimation of paracetamol plasma concentrations using high pressure liquid chromatography. Mean peak concentrations were obtained of 4.75 +/- 0.74 mg/ml at 1.75 hours with the new suppositories and of 4.6 +/- 0.67 mg/ml at 2.0 hours with the old suppositories. The difference was not significant. Mean elimination half-life was 4.4 +/- 0.42 hours and 3.73 +/- 0.28 hours, respectively. Again, the difference was not significant, indicating that the absorption characteristics for the suppositories did not appear to deteriorate with ageing for 24 months. Bioavailability data for paracetamol derived from the results were similar to those reported by other workers who studied suppositories containing paracetamol as the only active ingredient. This indicates that the inclusion of codeine phosphate and buclizine hydrochloride in the suppository formulation investigated in the present study did not affect adversely the absorption of paracetamol.