Study: ­Prednisolone Effective For Gout Treatment

Prednisolone and indomethacin are effective and safe for treating patients with gout, according to recent research.

Previous research and guidelines identified oral corticosteroids and anti-inflammatory drugs as effective treatment for gout, but the studies had limitations.
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To address these limitations, researchers examined 416 patients aged 18 years or older who presented to 4 emergency departments in Hong Kong with acute gout. Patients were randomly selected to receive oral indomethacin or oral prednisolone.

At presentation, researchers evaluated patients’ level of pain, and patients were asked to record their pain level for 2 weeks after initial presentation.

After the follow-up, researchers found that both groups had significant reductions in pain score, and no one experienced major side effects. Few minor side effects, including dizziness and nausea, were recorded in the indomethacin group.

“Oral prednisolone and indomethacin had similar analgesic effectiveness among patients with acute gout,” researchers concluded. “Prednisolone is an effective and safe first-line option for treatment of acute gout.”

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Rainer TH, Cheng CH, Janssens HJ, et al. Oral prednisolone in the treatment of acute gout: A pragmatic, multicenter, double-blind, randomized trial. Ann Int Med. Published online February 23, 2016. doi:10.7326/M14-2070.