The efficacy and safety of intramuscular injections of methylcobalamin in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomised controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) in the context of chronic pain: fibromyalgia & crps in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Chronic, nonspecific low back pain is a difficult ailment to treat and poses an economic burden in terms of medical expenses and productivity loss.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 60 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

This was a double-blinded, randomised, controlled experimental study. 60 patients were assigned to either the methylcobalamin group or the placebo group.

Patients were assessed with Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire Version 2.0 and Visual Analogue Scale pain score.

How the Study Was Run

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

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) could be set against what happens without it.

They were scored before commencement of the injections and at two months interval.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Chronic Disease, Disability Evaluation, Low Back Pain, Pain Measurement, Software, Surveys and Questionnaires and Vitamin B 12.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) in 60 patients in people with chronic pain: fibromyalgia & crps.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2011 (Singapore medical journal), a journal based in India.

More context: the Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) compound page, Chronic pain: fibromyalgia & CRPS research.