Common drug offers hope for painful Hand Osteoarthritis

Relief may be on the horizon for those suffering from painful hand osteoarthritis, thanks to a groundbreaking study led by Monash University and Alfred Health. Published in The Lancet, this research has uncovered an affordable and readily available drug methotrexate, that has shown promise in alleviating symptoms in patients with hand osteoarthritis, a condition for which there has been no effective treatment until now.

The drug methotrexate is a well-established and cost-effective treatment commonly used to manage inflammatory joint conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. Hand OA is a debilitating condition that brings about pain and hinders normal hand function, impacting daily activities like dressing and eating. Until now, no effective medications existed to manage this condition.

It was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 97 participants. It aimed to determine whether a weekly 20 mg dosage of methotrexate could reduce pain and improve function in patients with symptomatic hand OA and synovitis (inflammation) over a six-month period.

The study found that a 20mg weekly oral dose of methotrexate over six months had a moderate effect in reducing pain and stiffness in patients with symptomatic hand OA. According to Professor Cicuttini, the improvement in pain for the methotrexate group was twice as much as for the placebo group. For patients with hand OA and inflammation, the effects of methotrexate were noticeable at around three months, and by six months, it became evident whether the treatment was effective.

Ref:Methotrexate to treat hand osteoarthritis with synovitis (METHODS): an Australian, multisite, parallel-group, doubleblind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, The Lancet, DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736