RESEARCH ARTICLE
Anti-Nociceptive Effects of Elcatonin Injection for Postmenopausal Women with Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Shota Ikegami*, 1, Mikio Kamimura2, Shigeharu Uchiyama1, Hiroyuki Nakagawa3, Hiroyuki Hashidate1, Kenji Takahara4, Jun Takahashi1, Hiroyuki Kato1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 4
First Page: 132
Last Page: 136
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-4-132
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001004010132
Article History:
Received Date: 4/1/2010Revision Received Date: 15/1/2010
Acceptance Date: 3/2/2010
Electronic publication date: 4/3/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Eel calcitonin (elcatonin) injection is widely used for elderly patients suffering from somatic pain in Japan. However, there have been few reports on the analgesic effects of elcatonin injection. The purpose of this study was to examine the analgesic effects of elcatonin injection in postmenopausal women with lower back pain.
Methods:
This study was designed as a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Thirty-six women aged ≥50 years with acute lower back pain participated in this study. They were randomly divided into two treatment groups according to whether they received a placebo or a weekly trigger point injection of elcatonin (20 units). They were observed for 5 weeks and the extent of pain at motion and at rest according to the visual analog scale (VAS) was evaluated. The mean VAS scores for the elcatonin group were then compared with those of the placebo group.
Results:
There were no statistically significant differences in the mean VAS scores for pain at rest between the two groups during the 5-week treatment course. However, the mean VAS scores for motion pain in the elcatonin group were significantly lower than those in the placebo group at the third, fifth and sixth weeks.
Conclusions:
Elcatonin injection (20 units) significantly relieved motion pain in the lower back in postmenopausal women after three weeks of treatment. This analgesic effect continued for the subsequent 3 weeks.
