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Common Drug
for Knee Pain No Better Than Placebo
(NY, Reuters Health, 8/6/04)
Dr. Maxime Dougados, of Rene Descartes University, Paris,
and team, randomly assigned either a placebo or 4 grams a day
of paracetamol (also called acetaminophen), the active
ingredient in Tylenol, to 779 patients who had knee pain due
to osteoarthritis. After 6 weeks, slightly over half of the
subjects in both groups experienced at least a 30% decrease in
pain intensity. Further studies will have to be conducted to
find out why participants receiving paracetamol appeared to
have no greater symptomatic relief of osteoarthritis knee pain
than the placebo group.
(Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases,
August 2004 |
Article Summary