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Chondroitin of Little Benefit for Osteoarthritis
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 16 - Findings from a meta-analysis of trial data suggest that use of the popular supplement chondroitin provides little or no symptomatic relief for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip.
Use of chondroitin should be discouraged for patients with advanced osteoarthritis and for those with milder disease, and its use should be restricted to clinical trials, senior author Dr. Peter Juni, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and colleagues conclude.
The findings, which appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine for April 17, stem from an analysis of data for 3846 patients enrolled in 20 trials, identified through a search of MEDLINE and related sources. A high degree of heterogeneity was noted between the trials.
The authors found that the apparent benefits of chondroitin were largely confined to studies of poor methodologic quality, such as those with small patient numbers or ones with unclear concealment of allocation. When the analysis was limited to the three best-designed studies with the largest sample sizes (40% of all patients), chondroitin offered virtually no relief from joint pain.
While not particularly effective, chondroitin use did not appear to be harmful either, according to a meta-analysis of 12 of the studies.
In a related editorial, Dr. David T. Felson, from Boston University, comments that despite the current findings, many patients are convinced that chondroitin works for them, possibly as a result of a placebo effect. He adds that because its use seems to be safe, "if patients say that they benefit from chondroitin, I see no harm in encouraging them to continue taking it as long as they perceive a benefit."
Ann Intern Med 2007;146:580-590,611-612.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 16 - Findings from a meta-analysis of trial data suggest that use of the popular supplement chondroitin provides little or no symptomatic relief for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip.
Use of chondroitin should be discouraged for patients with advanced osteoarthritis and for those with milder disease, and its use should be restricted to clinical trials, senior author Dr. Peter Juni, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and colleagues conclude.
The findings, which appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine for April 17, stem from an analysis of data for 3846 patients enrolled in 20 trials, identified through a search of MEDLINE and related sources. A high degree of heterogeneity was noted between the trials.
The authors found that the apparent benefits of chondroitin were largely confined to studies of poor methodologic quality, such as those with small patient numbers or ones with unclear concealment of allocation. When the analysis was limited to the three best-designed studies with the largest sample sizes (40% of all patients), chondroitin offered virtually no relief from joint pain.
While not particularly effective, chondroitin use did not appear to be harmful either, according to a meta-analysis of 12 of the studies.
In a related editorial, Dr. David T. Felson, from Boston University, comments that despite the current findings, many patients are convinced that chondroitin works for them, possibly as a result of a placebo effect. He adds that because its use seems to be safe, "if patients say that they benefit from chondroitin, I see no harm in encouraging them to continue taking it as long as they perceive a benefit."
Ann Intern Med 2007;146:580-590,611-612.