BISPHOSPHONATES - medicines usually used to treat osteoporosis - may provide short-term pain relief for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), according to a research analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine today.
CRPS is a severe and often disabling chronic pain condition that usually develops in a limb after injury or surgery, with limited options for effective treatment.
Clinical guidelines recommend oral or intravenous bisphosphonates for CRPS, despite limited evidence of efficacy.
The international team, which included researchers from the University of NSW, looked at 11 trials involving 754 adults with CRPS to determine the benefits and harms of bisphosphonates as a treatment option.
They found that while bisphosphonates may reduce pain intensity in the short-term (around one to three months after treatment), immediate- medium- and long-term effects were unclear.
While serious harms were rare, the data suggest that bisphosphonates probably increase the risk for adverse events, including flu-like symptoms such as diffuse musculoskeletal pain and fever.
"Future research should resolve uncertainty around which patients with CRPS are most likely to benefit from bisphosphonates," the study authors concluded.
Read the paper HERE.
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