• Guo-Hong Cai, Jing Huang, Yan Zhao, Jing Chen, Huang-Hui Wu, Yu-Lin Dong, Howard S Smith, Yun-Qing Li, Wen Wang, and Sheng-Xi Wu.
• Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaan'xii Province, China.
• Pain Physician. 2013 Nov 1;16(6):521-32.

BackgroundCurrently, there is no specific therapy for chronic pancreatitis (CP). The treatment of micronutrient antioxidant therapy for painful CP has been sporadically used for more than 30 years, however, its efficacy are still poorly understood.ObjectiveThe purpose of this meta-analysis is to investigate the safety and efficacy of antioxidant therapy for pain relief in patients with CP.SettingUniversity Hospital in ChinaStudy DesignSystematic review and meta-analysisMethodsTwo authors independently reviewed the search results and extracted data and disagreements were resolved by discussion. Effects were summarized using standardized mean differences (SMDs), weighted mean differences, or odds ratio (OR) according to the suitable effect model. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials  were searched from 1980 through December 2012. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that studied antioxidant supplementation for pain relief in patients with CP were analyzed.ResultsNine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 390 patients were included. Overall, there was no association of antioxidant therapy with pain reduction in CP patients (SMD, -0.55; 95% CI, -1.22 to 0.12; P = 0.67). However, antioxidant therapy significantly increased blood levels of antioxidants in CP patients versus the placebo group (SMD, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.74 to 1.43; P < 0.00001). Interestingly, combined antioxidant (selenium, β-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, methionine) therapy was found to be associated with pain relief (SMD, -0.93; 95% CI, -1.72 to -0.14; P = 0.02), while the trials in which a single antioxidant was used revealed no significant pain relief (SMD, -0.12; 95% CI, -1.23 to 0.99; P = 0.83) in CP patients. Strong evidence was obtained that the antioxidants increased adverse effects (OR, 6.09; 95% CI, 2.29 to 16.17, P < 0.01); nevertheless, none was serious.LimitationsBecause of the small sample, a consolidated conclusion cannot be reached based on current RCTs. Large-sample RCTs are needed to clarify the analgesic effect of antioxidants in CP patients.ConclusionsCombined antioxidant therapy seems to be a safe and effective therapy for pain relief in CP patients. Measures of total antioxidant status may not help to monitor the efficacy of antioxidant therapy for patients with CP.

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