Chronic phantom limb pain: the effects of calcitonin, ketamine, and their combination on pain and sensory thresholds

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Calcitonin in the context of chronic pain: fibromyalgia & crps.

The overall literature on N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonists is equivocal.

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 patients.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Calcitonin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Calcitonin.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Calcitonin, giving a reference point.

Each person switched between Calcitonin and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Intensity of phantom pain (visual analog scale) was recorded before, during, at the end, and the 48 h after each infusion.

Pain thresholds after electrical, thermal, and pressure stimulation were recorded before and during each infusion.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Analgesics, Calcitonin, Computers, Electric Stimulation, Hot Temperature, Ketamine and Pain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Calcitonin in 10 patients in people with chronic pain: fibromyalgia & crps.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2008 (Anesthesia and analgesia), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Calcitonin compound page, Chronic pain: fibromyalgia & CRPS research.