Nutritional supplement has steroid-sparing effect in colitis
An oral supplement enriched with a combination of fish oil, fermentable oligosaccharides and antioxidants can decrease the need for oral corticosteroids in patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis, study
data collected over six months suggest.
Patients received either a nutritionally balanced oral supplement with
fish oil, fructooligosaccharides, gum arabic, vitamin E, vitamin C and
selenium or a carbohydrate-based placebo. All 121 patients maintained
their normal diet throughout the study. Patients were allowed to take
corticosteroids and sulfasalazine or other mesalazine derivatives in
response to symptoms.
Patients were assessed for disease activity and medication use at three
and six months. Clinical improvements were observed in both groups with
similar decreases in markers of disease activity. There was a greater
rate of decrease in the prednisolone dose required in the supplement
compared with the placebo group over six months (P<0.001), although
the researchers note that the clinical relevance of this has not been
shown. In addition, the mean prednisolone dose per month was lower in
the supplement group than the placebo group. Results also showed that
fewer patients in the supplement group compared with those taking placebo
started prednisolone during the study (3.3 per cent versus 28.1 per cent,
P=0.008). The researchers note that the apparent steroid-sparing effect
was not at the expense of an increase in dose of mesalazine-containing
medicines.
“
We believe that [the supplement] showed a more positive effect because
it uses a combination of nutrients that taken together affected the inflammatory
cascade at more than one level.” They conclude that the supplement
may be most useful in patients who are unable to control disease activity
despite maximum doses of mesalazine or those who are unable to discontinue
corticosteroids. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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