Topical Ibuprofen for Arthritis

Motrin family medications taken by mouth kill over 16,500 Americans a year—unnecessarily. Natural remedies are more effective. In addition, using the motrin topically is as effective and much safer. This is again confirmed in this new study.

In my Pain Free 1-2-3 book we talk about using many medications in topical form. These are highly effective and much safer. These pain lotions are available from compounding pharmacies. I recommend the "Nerve Pain Lotion" (which helps many kinds of pain) from ITC Pharmacy. Your doctor can call in the prescription. Rub it over the painful area 3x day and give it 2 weeks to see the effects.

Advice to Use Topical or Oral Ibuprofen for Chronic Knee Pain in Older People: Randomised Controlled Trial and Patient Preference Study

Martin Underwood, Deborah Ashby, et al
Correspondence to: M Underwood m.underwood@qmul.ac.uk

Objective: To determine whether older patients with chronic knee pain should be advised to use topical or oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Design: Randomised controlled trial and patient preference study.

Setting: 26 general practices.

Participants: People aged 50 with knee pain: 282 in randomised trial and 303 in preference study.

Interventions: Advice to use topical or oral ibuprofen.

Primary outcome measures: WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities) osteoarthritis index, major and minor adverse effects.

Results: Changes in global WOMAC scores at 12 months were equivalent. In the randomised trial the difference (topical minus oral) was two points (95% confidence interval -2 to 6); in the preference study, it was one point (-4 to 6). There were no differences in major adverse effects in the trial or study. The only significant differences in secondary outcomes were in the randomised trial. The oral group had more respiratory adverse effects (17% v 7%, 95% confidence interval for difference -17% to -2%), the change in serum creatinine was 3.7 mmol/l less favourable (0.9 µmol/l to 6.5 µmol/l); and more participants changed treatments because of adverse effects (16% v 1%, -16% to -5%). In the topical group more participants had chronic pain grade III or IV at three months, and more participants changed treatment because of ineffectiveness.

Conclusions: Advice to use oral or topical preparations has an equivalent effect on knee pain over one year, and there are more minor side effects with oral NSAIDs. Topical NSAIDs may be a useful alternative to oral NSAIDs.

Trial registration: ISRCTN 79353052.

Related Articles:

BMJ 2008;336:117 (19 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39461.527650.4E