Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. Various analgesic agents are used to relieve pain. Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is one such analgesic agent that exhibits pain relieving and anti-inflammatory activities. In this meta-analysis, the pain relieving properties of PEA has been reviewed and it has been determined that PEA can prove to be an efficacious agent in pain management.

Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), a cannabimimetic compound has been studied as an analgesic agent in animal models and clinical trials. This meta-analysis is conducted to assess the effectiveness of PEA for managing pain in randomised, controlled trials. 

EMBASE and PubMed were searched to select randomised, active or placebo-controlled trials comprising PEA therapy for managing chronic or acute pain. The weighted mean difference in visual analogue pain scales of PEA treatment than inactive controls was considered as the primary endpoint. 

A total of ten studies comprising 512 controls for inclusion and 786 subjects obtained PEA was involved. Eight trials included in the meta-analysis comprised an inactive control group. PEA was linked with considerably higher pain decline than the inactive control. The PEA efficacy did not influence by the presence of blinding, the duration or dose of PEA treatment, allowance for concomitant treatments, or the use of placebo control. The PEA group non-significantly reduced all-cause dropout as compared to the inactive control conditions. This meta-analysis depended on a comparatively small number of trials over a variety of infirmities generating pain with varying trial designs. The assessment of side effects and overall quality of underlying studies was poor. 

PEA may be a beneficial therapy for pain and is usually well tolerated in study populations. Additional, well-designed, randomised, placebo-controlled trials are required to implement reliable estimates of its effectiveness and to distinguish less severe inopportune events linked with this compound.