ABSTRACTA pharmaceutical composition comprises a combination of a selective orspecific COX 2 inhibitor or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or derivativethereof and an opiate or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or derivativethereof, for example a combination of meloxicam and codeine, as activeingredients, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. It may include acentrally-acting cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor such as paracetamol or itspharmaceutically acceptable salts or derivatives. The pharmaceuticalcompositions are used in methods of providing symptomatic relief or treatmentof pain, in an algesic and/or hyperalgesic state, with or without fever, inparticular that associated with inflammation such as that associated withtrauma, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, non-inflammatory myalgia ordysmenorrhoea.
