No significant between-group difference in decrease in mean pain VAS score, mean change in chronic pain
THURSDAY, Dec. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP), vitamin D3 and placebo offer similar improvements, according to a study published in the November issue of the International Journal of Rheumatic Disease.
Mahnaz Sandoughi, M.D., from the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial involving 53 patients aged 18 to 34 years (75.47 percent female) with nonspecific CLBP. Patients were randomized into two groups based on sex and age, and administered pearl of vitamin D3 (26 patients) or placebo (27 patients) every week for eight weeks.
The researchers found that on the first visit the mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-vitamin D) level was 18.86 ± 9.24 nmol/L. After eight weeks of intervention the mean serum 25-OH-vitamin D changed from 17.88 ± 9.04 to 27.52 ± 9.04 in the vitamin D group (P = 0.043) and from 19.81 ± 9.60 to 18.91 ± 7.84 in the placebo group (P = 0.248). In both groups there was a significant decrease in the mean visual analogue scale score for pain (both P = 0.001). No significant between-group difference was seen in the mean changes in chronic pain.
“According to our results, both vitamin D3 and placebo treatments improved CLBP and there was no significant difference between vitamin D3 and placebo groups,” the authors write.
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