medwireNews: Trial results suggest that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation has no effect on disease activity but could reduce requirement for pain relief in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).
Although measures of disease activity – including Disease Activity Score based on C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP), 68 tender joint count, and psoriasis area and severity index – decreased after 24 weeks of supplementation with omega-3 PUFAs, these measures were not significantly different between the 67 patients randomly assigned to the omega-3 PUFA group and 63 receiving olive oil as a control.
However, patients given omega-3 PUFA supplements had a greater decrease in nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and acetaminophen use from baseline to week 24 than those in the control group, with reductions of 2.45 versus 1.39 tablets per week and 2.63 versus 1.36 tablets per week, respectively.
This reduction in analgesic use may have “diminished the effect of [omega-3] PUFA on outcome measures for disease activity since the patients used NSAID and paracetamol [acetaminophen] to reduce pain and inflammation in the joints and entheses,” note Salome Kristensen (Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark) and fellow researchers in the Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology.
And they conclude that “[omega-3] PUFAs may be an attractive adjunctive treatment in patients with PsA.”
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