and extract combination for hand osteoarthritis: an open-label pre-post trial.

Context: Osteoarthritis (OA) of the hand is a common painful musculoskeletal disorder with no cure. There is a need for an efficient and safe treatment to relieve OA pain.

Objective: To investigate the effects of a and food supplement in addition to standard care on hand pain.

Materials And Methods: This open-label, non-controlled, post-observational study was based on 232 patients suffering from hand pain with or without joint deformity. Patients received a medical prescription for a three-month treatment with a food supplement containing 89 mg of dry extract, 120 mg of resin, and 1.8 µg vitamin D. Pain was evaluated on a 10-point visual analog scale (VAS). The number of painful hand joints, patient satisfaction, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs intake, and side effects were also recorded.

Results: Baseline pain intensity (regression coefficient ± : -0.19 ± 0.01,  < 0.0001) and the number of painful joints (regression coefficient ± : -0.022 ± 0.0029,  < 0.0001) decreased significantly throughout the 3 months treatment period. NSAIDs intake and topical drug application were significantly decreased by 64% ( < 0.0001) and 79% ( < 0.0001) after 12 weeks, respectively. Only 3/239 (1.3%) patients reported side effects probably related to the product. 80.3% were satisfied with the treatment and 75.5% wished to continue treatment.

Conclusion: This is the first clinical trial showing that and resin can relieve symptoms in patients with hand osteoarthritis. The study provides useful information for the design of a clinical trial including a broader population.