Low-Dose Dextromethorphan for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Pain: [..] Longitudinal ... Pilot Trial, 2021, Mueller, Ness, Younger

Andy · Feb 7, 2021

Full title: Low-Dose Dextromethorphan for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Pain: Results from a Longitudinal, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Trial

Objective: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a debilitating chronic pain condition with few treatment options. Central sensitization and neuroinflammation have been forwarded as models of FM pathophysiology, both of which indicate dextromethorphan (DXM) as a potential treatment. DXM is an NMDA-receptor antagonist and microglial modulator with anti-neuroinflammatory properties at low doses. It is available for clinical use but has not been tested as a treatment for FM at low dosages. This study evaluated the effectiveness of DXM in treating FM-associated symptoms.

Methods: In a single-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 14 women meeting the 2010 American College of Rheumatology criteria for FM received a placebo for five weeks, followed by 20 mg DXM for ten weeks, while providing daily symptom reports on a 0– 100 scale. Pain and physical activity were the primary and secondary outcomes, respectively. Daily symptom ratings during the last four weeks of placebo were contrasted with ratings during the last four weeks of the active treatment using generalized estimating equations (GEE).

Results: DXM was well tolerated, and treatment adherence was high. Baseline pain was reduced by at least 20% in six participants. Self-reported daily pain and physical activity in the entire cohort were not significantly different between the placebo and DXM conditions, and the primary hypotheses were not supported. Exploratory analyses using the entire placebo and DXM data showed that pain was significantly lower in the DXM condition than in the placebo condition (b=− 9.933, p=0.013).

Discussion: A strong clinical effect of DXM was not observed at the 20mg/day dosage.
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Open access, https://www.dovepress.com/low-dose-...pain-resul-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-JPR

shak8 · Feb 7, 2021

Small study, no significant decrease in pain.

Well-written and easy to understand.

Milo · Feb 7, 2021

Dr Younger has been rather silent in the last few months, glad to hear from him. Glad that this paper is published so he can move on to other projects.

A few years back i had orthopaedic surgery and i needed to be hospitalized for a couple of nights. The pain management was very difficult, and the anesthetist decided to give me DMX every 3-4 hours, which absolutely did nothing other than making me gag and feeling nauseous.

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Low-Dose Dextromethorphan for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Pain: [..] Longitudinal ... Pilot Trial, 2021, Mueller, Ness, Younger

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Low-Dose Dextromethorphan for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Pain: [..] Longitudinal ... Pilot Trial, 2021, Mueller, Ness, Younger

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