Glucosamine doesn't ease low back pain: study

Glucosamine doesn't ease low back pain: study

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The popular anti-arthritis supplement glucosamine may not help most cases of low back pain, according to a new study. Patients were no better after treatment with glucosamine than after treatment with placebo.

While it's possible that glucosamine could be beneficial for some people with low back pain, said Dr. Philip Wilkens, the lead author on the study and a chiropractor at Oslo University Hospital in Norway, it's hard to know which ones.

Glucosamine is one of the most popular supplements used by people with osteoarthritis, and it's shown some success for that indication at other sites in the body. About a quarter of patients with lower back pain use it, but there hasn't been much evidence to show that it improves their symptoms.

Dr. Wilkens and his colleagues enrolled 250 outpatients with low back pain in a randomized trial. All of the patients had at least some degree of degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis. Half received a standard dose of glucosamine (1500 mg/day) for six months, and the other half received placebo.

At baseline, at the end of the treatment period, and again six months after that, the patients completed questionnaires about their pain and how it interfered with their lives.

Immediately after treatment ended as well as 6 months later, both groups reported fewer problems related to their back pain - but people who took the placebo improved just as much as people on glucosamine, according to the report, which was published July 6th in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About a third of patients in each group had mild stomach or skin problems, but there were no serious side effects caused by glucosamine.

The authors believe part of the improvement in patients' pain might have been due to the fact that they were allowed to get other treatment during the study. The rest of the improvement, said Dr. Wilkens, could be a placebo effect. Also, he said, patients with chronic pain have periods of getting better and worse, and most were probably in their worse state when they agreed to start the trial.

Glucosamine is considered a dietary supplement in the United States, so the FDA does not approve it for medical use. It is, however, approved for medical use in most of Europe. Glucosamine can be bought without a prescription, often for less than 50 cents a day.

The results of the study shouldn't discourage people who take glucosamine for other types of osteoarthritis, Dr. Wilkens said. Because of differences in joints, glucosamine may act differently in other parts of the body, he noted.

"It's probably helping a lot of people with knee pain," he told Reuters Health. But in terms of using it as a treatment for people with low back pain, "our evidence suggests that (they're) not going to benefit."

http://link.reuters.com/nyz95m

JAMA 2010.



Copyright © 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

This information within this application has been developed and provided by independent third-party sources. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy of the content, or for practices or standards of external sources.