Methodologically Sound Studies
Commenting on the studies, Nancy E. Lane, MD, said: “There have been small botulinum studies before but not powered enough so that you could confirm or refute hypotheses.”
Dr. Lane, endowed professor of medicine, rheumatology, and aging research and director for the Center for Musculoskeletal Health at the University of California Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, California, added: “Similarly for resveratrol, there have been lots of studies.”
Moreover, Dr. Lane observed that the studies were “really well-designed. They were well-powered. The subjects were selected in such a way that was good rigor in the methodologic design, and there were enough people in the studies so that you could really believe the results.”
The take-home is probably that these approaches do not work, Dr. Lane said, “at least when you apply them to moderate-severe knee OA patients, they don’t seem to make a difference.”
The congress was sponsored by the Osteoarthritis Research Society International.
The DICKENS study of diacerein was an investigator-initiated trial that was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. TRB Chemedica International S.A. provided diacerein free of charge for the trial but was not involved in the implementation or data analysis. Dr. Aitken had no conflicts of interest to disclose.
The ARTHROL trial of oral resveratrol was funded by the French Ministry of Health and Solidarity (Ministré des Solidarités et de la Santé). Yvery Laboratory provided the resveratrol caplet and matching placebo free of charge. Dr. Nguyen has financial relationships with Actelion, Grünenthal, Ipsen, Lilly, Meda, Merz, Novartis, Preciphar, Sandoz, Takeda, Thuasne, and UCB.
Dr. Lane had no relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.