Oral Prednisolone and Naproxen Found Equally Beneficial in the Treatment of Gout Arthritis
LONDON -- May 29, 2008 -- A recent study, reported in The Lancet, finds that naproxen and prednisolone are beneficial alternatives for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and colchicines to treat gout arthritis.
Primary-care patients with gout were randomly assigned to receive either prednisolone or naproxen for 5 days. Treatment was masked for both patients and physicians. The primary outcome was pain, measured on a 100-mm visual analogue scale and the a priori margin for equivalence set at 10%.
After 90 hours, the reduction in the pain score was 44.7 mm for prednisolone and 46.0 mm for naproxen. These data suggest that oral prednisolone and naproxen are equally effective in the initial treatment of gout arthritis over 4 days.
