Glucocorticoid therapy benefits osteoarthritis patients with severe pain, according to new study
A new study has assessed the benefits of glucocorticoid joint injections for specific subgroups of people with knee and hip osteoarthritis and found that people with extreme pain are more likely to benefit from this treatment.
Glucocorticoid as a treatment of arthritis has been in use since the 1940s. This type of steroid-based therapy is injected directly into the joints to address knee and hip inflammation and to offer pain relief.
The results of this new study, published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, has found that patients with a severe amount of pain at the beginning of the study period experienced a significantly larger reduction in short-term pain, although it is said this effect did not persist over the medium to long term.
This study was an international research project which involved scientist from the Arthritis Research UK Centre of Excellence in Sports, Exercise and Osteoarthritis at the University of Oxford, and the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre at Keel University.
Led by the Erasmus MC Medical University Centre in Rotterdam, data from seven published clinical trials was analysed, using information on 620 patients. These trials were published between 1995 and 2012.
The researchers say, “This individual patient data meta-analysis demonstrates that patients with severe knee pain at baseline derive more benefit from intra-articular glucocorticoid injection at short-term follow-up than those with less severe pain at baseline.”
Dr Katherine Free, research liaison and communications manager at Arthritis Research UK, says, “Osteoarthritis is a painful and debilitating condition, affecting around eight million people in the UK. There are many different treatments for this condition, including painkillers, injections and exercise programmes; however, the effectiveness of treatments does vary between individuals.
“Identifying which patients are most likely to respond to specific treatments is currently a major area of research. This international research project suggests that glucocorticoid therapy can be most effective in people with severe osteoarthritis, which is encouraging as this form of the condition is often the hardest to treat.”
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