NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Findings from an analysis of previously published data suggest that use of the popular supplement chondroitin provides little or no relief of symptoms of arthritis in the knee or hip.

Chondroitin should therefore be discouraged for arthritis patients and its use restricted to clinical trials, senior author Dr. Peter Juni, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and colleagues conclude.

The findings, which appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine, stem from an analysis of data for 3,846 patients enrolled in 20 trials, identified through a search of the MEDLINE medical database and related sources.

The authors found that the apparent benefits of chondroitin were largely confined to poorly designed studies, such as those with patients who knew if they were treated with chondroitin or inactive "placebo." When the analysis was limited to the three best-designed studies with the largest number of patients, chondroitin offered virtually no relief from joint pain.

While not particularly effective, chondroitin use did not appear to be harmful either, according to an analysis of data from 12 of the studies.

In a related editorial, Dr. David T. Felson, from Boston University, comments that despite the current findings, many patients are convinced that chondroitin works for them, possibly as a result of a placebo effect. He adds that because its use seems to be safe, "if patients say that they benefit from chondroitin, I see no harm in encouraging them to continue taking it as long as they perceive a benefit."

SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, April 17, 2007.

REUTERS