Comparison of Glucosamine Sulphate & Glucosamine/MSM in Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: Signs & Symptoms

With regards to the increasing prevalence of knee osteoarthritis (OA), the complaints of these patients from pain, some reports from the positive effects of glucosamine in decreasing pain in these patients and due to some defects in previous researches and for the comparison of the effects of Glucosamine Sulphate and Glucosamine/MSM, this study was done on the quality of pain and sign and symptoms of knee OA in a private clinic in 2008. A randomized matched clinical trial was conducted. Patients over 40 years old with knee OA according to ACR criteria, BMI<30, without history of recent knee surgery (recent one year) and after ruling out secondary OA, were enrolled in our study. The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: glucosamine 1tab/BID and glucosamine/MSM 1tab/BID for 6 months. Outcome included WOMAC index. The change in pain score was studied in each group under Wilkacson statistic method and between the 2 groups, it was studied using Mann Whitney method. 27 patients were included in glucosamine group and 26 patients in glucosamine/MSM group. The incidence of side effects was similar in both groups (p<0.9). Pain severity in the beginning, sex, age, and other studied factors were similar too. The decrease in pain score was 27.4±17.3 in Glucosamine group and 25.5±15.7 in Glucosamine/MSM group which means 28.8% reduction in Glucosamine group and 26.1% reduction in Glucosamine /MSM group (p<0.005), but in comparison, it was not meaningful statistically (P<0.8). It seems that these two groups of drugs have similar effects, but due to prices and side effects, Glucosamine is better than Glucosamine/MSM.