Anti-nociceptive effects of elcatonin injection for postmenopausal women with back pain: a randomized controlled trial.
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.
Ikegami
Shota
S
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto 390-8621, Japan.
Kamimura
Mikio
M
Uchiyama
Shigeharu
S
Nakagawa
Hiroyuki
H
Hashidate
Hiroyuki
H
Takahara
Kenji
K
Takahashi
Jun
J
Kato
Hiroyuki
H
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