Large review finds no clinically important effect of glucosamine or chondroitin on pain in people with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip but results are questionable and likely due to heterogeneity

Context
Treatment of osteoarthritis with unspecifi c symptomatic agents is not satisfactory and burdened with safety issues. The use of glucosamine and/or chondroitin as diseasemodifying agents is increasingly popular, despite conflicting clinical trial evidence with the many available
products. Wandel and colleagues produced a systematic review and a meta-analysis with relatively new statistical methods.