Rheumatology Medical News about complementary and alternative medicine;Raynaud's phenomenon

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The efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of Raynaud's phenomenon: A literature review and meta-analysis
Rheumatology, 05/13/09

Malenfant D et al. – Data suggest that there is a need for well-designed trials of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in Raynaud's phenomenon (RP). The literature is inconclusive except that biofeedback does not work for RP, therapeutic gloves may improve RP and laser may be effective but the improvement may not be clinically relevant.

Methods

Aim was to find an effective and well-tolerated CAM for the treatment of RP
Using MEDLINE, EMBASE and AMED, 20 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were found and divided into 9 treatment subcategories:
- acupuncture (n=2 trials), anti-oxidants (n=2), biofeedback (n=5),
- essential fatty acids (n=3), Ginkgo biloba (n=1), L-arginine (n=2),
- laser (n=3), glucosaminoglycans (n=1) and therapeutic gloves (n=1)
Trials in each subcategory were meta-analysed together

Results

Not enough trials to do a meta-analysis and most trials were negative, of poor quality and done prior to 1990
Biofeedback was negative for a change in frequency, duration and severity of RP attacks, and actually favoured control
The therapeutic glove favoured active treatment
Laser resulted in one less RP attack on average over 2 wks vs sham and a change in severity of attacks
No differences found in the nutritional supplements that were studied

Exclusive Author Commentary
Malenfant, D, 05/12/09

This most salient point when reaserching this topic was the variety of CAM treatments that have been trialed. This shows that patient with Raynaud's have for a long time looked into other treatments for there symptoms with little positive results as the results show. There is room for more effective symptom control in this condition.

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