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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some people who suffer from a common and often debilitating chronic pain condition called fibromyalgia may find relief with shots of growth hormone, a study hints.
In a group of patients with severe fibromyalgia and low blood levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), adding daily injections of growth hormone to standard intensive therapy reduced pain and improved quality of life, researchers found.
There is evidence of growth hormone deficiency -- expressed as low IGF-1 blood levels -in some fibromyalgia patients, Dr. Guillem Cuatrecasas at Centro Medico Teknon in Barcelona, and colleagues explain in a report published online. Growth hormone stimulates IGF-1 in the body.
The Spanish investigators studied the effects of growth hormone in a study involving 24 mostly female patients who had severe fibromyalgia lasting at least 1 year, low IGF-1 levels, and pain in at least 16 of the 18 fibromyalgia "trigger points."
Standard therapy included an antidepressant, such as amitriptyline or fluoxetine, plus the painkiller tramadol, as well as active rehabilitation and psychological support.
Twelve patients were randomly selected for treatment with human growth hormone.
After 12 months, the number of tender points was significantly lower in the growth hormone group (average 6.50 versus 16.5), the investigators report.
Growth hormone treatment was also associated with significantly greater improvement in scores on the so-called Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and in overall quality of life.
In fact, all 12 patients in the growth hormone group experienced global improvement, which was apparent within the first month according to most measurements. Improvements were evident in areas such as fatigue, pain, anxiety and depression, the investigators note.
"The consistency and magnitude of these results...are encouraging and warrant further validation in a multicenter, double-blind confirmatory study, which is currently ongoing."
SOURCE: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, online November 30. 2007.
