| Course | PA 650 Capstone Project |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Harm and benefit analysis |
| Length | About 600 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PA 650 Week 6
Harm and Benefit Balance for Adding a Muscle Relaxant to Naproxen: Two Columns From Two Kinds of Source, Who Carries Each, How Soon It Arrives, Whether It Can Be Undone and Why the Sides Are Not Added Together
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 650: Capstone Project
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Harm and Benefit Balance for Adding a Muscle Relaxant to Naproxen: Two Columns From Two Kinds of Source, Who Carries Each, How Soon It Arrives, Whether It Can Be Undone and Why the Sides Are Not Added Together
Two Sides, Two Sources
Table 1
What Adding a Muscle Relaxant Offers and Costs
| Benefit of adding a muscle relaxant | Harm of adding a muscle relaxant |
|---|---|
| No improvement in function at 1 week in three emergency department trials of cyclobenzaprine, diazepam, orphenadrine and methocarbamol | Adverse events more frequent overall, relative risk 1.6, mostly drowsiness and dizziness, in a meta-analysis of trials in acute back pain |
| A small reduction in pain intensity at two weeks or less, 7.7 points on a 100-point scale, very low certainty | Sedation that matters for driving, machine work and safety-sensitive jobs |
| Possibly better sleep in the first nights, reported by patients but not measured as an outcome in the trials | Falls and confusion in older adults, the reason these drugs appear on the Beers list |
Note. Note. Benefit rows from the trials and review in the evidence table; harm rows from the review's adverse event data and from prescribing guidance for older adults.
Why the Sources Differ
The benefit side comes from the randomized trials, which were designed to measure function. Trials are small and short, so they rarely detect uncommon harms. The harm side therefore leans on the pooled adverse event data, where the review found more adverse events with non-benzodiazepine antispasmodics than with control (Cashin et al., 2021), and on the Beers criteria for older adults (American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria Update Expert Panel, 2023).
Who Carries It
The benefit, if any, goes to patients whose main complaint is pain at night. The harm falls on everyone who takes the drug, and most heavily on people who drive for work, operate machinery or care for small children at night. In my population, the commercial driver from week 3 is the person who carries the most harm for the least likely benefit.
The patient who would most like the benefit, someone who cannot sleep for pain, is also often the patient most likely to drive to work early the next morning, which is why the two columns cannot simply be weighed against each other in general.
How Soon, and Can It Be Undone
Sedation arrives within hours of the first dose. A crash or a fall can happen on the first night and cannot be undone. The small pain benefit, if any, appears over days and disappears when the drug stops.
The Comparison Has Harms Too
Naproxen alone is not harmless: gastrointestinal irritation and, rarely, bleeding or kidney injury. Those harms are shared by both arms of the comparison, so they do not change the balance of adding a muscle relaxant, but they do mean neither option is free.
The Asymmetry, Stated
I do not add the columns together, because they are measured in different units and come from different evidence. Stated plainly: adding a muscle relaxant to naproxen buys no measurable gain in function at one week (Friedman et al., 2015) and at best a small, uncertain drop in pain, at the price of more side effects that arrive quickly and occasionally cannot be reversed.
References
American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria Update Expert Panel. (2023). American Geriatrics Society 2023 updated AGS Beers Criteria for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 71(7), 2052-2081. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18372
Cashin, A. G., Folly, T., Bagg, M. K., Wewege, M. A., Jones, M. D., Ferraro, M. C., Leake, H. B., Rizzo, R. R. N., Schabrun, S. M., Gustin, S. M., Day, R., Williams, C. M., & McAuley, J. H. (2021). Efficacy, acceptability, and safety of muscle relaxants for adults with non-specific low back pain: Systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 374, Article n1446. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1446
Friedman, B. W., Dym, A. A., Davitt, M., Holden, L., Solorzano, C., Esses, D., Bijur, P. E., & Gallagher, E. J. (2015). Naproxen with cyclobenzaprine, oxycodone/acetaminophen, or placebo for treating acute low back pain: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 314(15), 1572-1580. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.13043
What the PA 650 Week 6 assignment asks for
The sixth week asks for a balance of harms and benefits in two columns that are not added together, with a paragraph explaining why. The benefit side usually comes from the trials already in your evidence table. The harm side often needs other sources, since trials are small and short and miss uncommon harms. For each side, say who carries it: which patients gain and which bear the risk. Say how soon each arrives and whether it can be undone. Recognize that the comparison has harms too. Finish by stating the asymmetry in plain words rather than as a net score. The instructions allow harms beyond physical ones, such as missed work or cost, where they matter. Cite the sources for both columns.
Inside the PA 650 Week 6 example
A two-column table sets no function benefit at one week, a 7.7-point pain reduction of very low certainty and possible better sleep against more adverse events, sedation affecting driving and falls in older adults. A section explains why the harm side relies on pooled adverse event data (Cashin et al., 2021) and the Beers criteria (the 2023 Beers criteria). The who-carries section names night-time pain sufferers as the possible gainers and the commercial driver from week 3 as the person bearing most risk. A timing section contrasts sedation within hours with a benefit that appears over days and stops with the drug. A section notes that naproxen's own risks fall on both arms. The closing states the asymmetry and cites Friedman et al. (2015) for the absent function benefit.
PA 650 Week 6 rubric: what full points look like
The balance loses the most when the two columns are combined into a single net judgment, since benefits and harms come in different units and from different evidence. Next, graders deduct for harms drawn only from small trials that could not detect them. Faculty reward stating who carries each side, how quickly it arrives and whether it can be reversed. Recognizing that the comparison has harms of its own shows fairness. A plain statement of the asymmetry earns a defined share. Accuracy of figures against the evidence table is checked. Citation of every source for both columns, in APA form, completes the rubric.
PA 650 Week 6 help from the desk
Harm and benefit balances most often go wrong by listing side effects from a drug handbook and concluding that benefits outweigh risks, with no sources and no people attached. Another frequent problem is ignoring timing, so an immediate harm and a delayed benefit are treated as equal. Some balances also forget the comparison's own risks. If your capstone involves a different treatment, send your evidence table and any safety sources; a balance written for you would draw each column from its proper source, say who carries each side, compare timing and reversibility, include the comparison's harms and state the asymmetry plainly. If cost or work time matters to your population, those would be added as rows with their sources.
Get a PA-650 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 6 instructions with your evidence table if you have one, and a custom harm and benefit balance written to your rubric arrives inside 24-48h, the first one free. Tell the desk whether your section counts cost and burden as harms, because that single answer changes half of what goes on the page.
More PA 650 papers and MPAS samples
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- PA 650 Week 3: Patient Population Definition
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- PA 650 Week 5: Strength of Evidence Table
- PA 650 Week 7: Bedside Recommendation Statement
- PA 650 Week 8: Clinical Poster Draft
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- PA 502 Week 6: Guideline Comparison
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PA 650 Week 6 questions, answered
How far does harm go? Does cost count?
Most rubrics on this course accept anything the patient bears, and the stronger documents include it: money paid, appointments taken out of a working week, a result that starts a chain of further testing. Say which of those your section names, since a few restrict the section to clinical adverse events. Where yours does not, the wider account usually reads as the more honest one.
What if the harms are not reported anywhere?
Then the absence goes into the section in exactly those words. Name what you looked in, say that nothing counted it, and state what would have to be collected before anybody could weigh the option properly. A project admitting that the harm side is unmeasured argues better than one filling the column from a different condition and hoping nobody checks.
Does the balance have to reach a verdict?
Many sections ask for one here and many hold it back until the recommendation. Either way the section should end by naming the kind of patient for whom the two sides come out on opposite sides, because a balance producing the same answer for everybody in the population has probably drawn the population too broadly or weighed only one column.
Where can I find a free PA 650 Week 6 sample paper?
A complete PA 650 Week 6 harm and benefit balance for adding a muscle relaxant to naproxen, with separate sources for each column, is on this page.
Why are the columns not added together in the PA 650 Week 6 sample?
Benefits and harms are measured in different units and come from different evidence, so a single net score would hide the asymmetry.