Supplement relief for severe pain

The answer to whether or not two popular dietary supplements rumored to relieve arthritis pain really work is: It depends.

A combination of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, two naturally occurring substances derived in supplement form from animals, proved no better than a placebo at relieving mild to moderate knee pain in a five-year trial. However, a smaller group of study participants with severe knee pain experienced significant relief from the two supplements.

“For the population as a whole, supplements were found to be ineffective,” said Daniel O. Clegg, M.D., principle investigator of the “Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial,” which was published in the Feb. 22 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. “The combination of [supplements] might be effective in patients who suffer from moderate to severe osteoarthritis knee pain.”

For most of the study’s participants, the supplements did not measure up against celecoxib, a common pain-relieving medication prescribed for osteoarthritis. However, among participants with more serious knee pain (representing 22 percent of the group), the supplements decreased pain more than the medication (79 percent versus 69 percent).

More than 20 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis. A second phase of this study will look at whether the supplements taken alone or in combination affect the progression of the condition.