Glucosamine therapy compared to ibuprofen for joint pain

Abstract

To determine the effectiveness of oral glucosamine with ibuprofen for the relief of joint pain in osteoarthritis a mini-review (Griffiths, 2002) of double-blind randomized controlled trials comparing the two was undertaken. The population was adult patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis at any site. The outcome was arthritic pain reduction. Searches on Medline, Embase, AMED, the Cochrane Library and the Merck index identified four trials. Of these, two studies were obtainable and were included in the review. Both compared 1.2 g ibuprofen daily with 1.5 g glucosamine sulphate daily, in three divided doses. The combined number of participants in the studies was 218. The results of these studies showed glucosamine to be of similar efficacy to ibuprofen. The conclusion is that glucosamine is effective in relieving joint pain associated with osteoarthritis. Glucosamine's pain-relieving effects may be due to its cartilage-rebuilding properties; these disease-modifying effects are not seen with simple analgesics and are of particular benefit. In practice glucosamine can be used as an alternative to anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics or as a useful adjunct to standard analgesic therapy.