Efficacy and safety of co-administration of resveratrol with meloxicam in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a pilot interventional study

Hussain SA, Marouf BH, Ali ZS, Ahmmad RS · Clinical Interventions in Aging

WOMAC was the secondary outcome; the primary was safety monitoring of liver, kidney, lipid and haematology panels. The paper reports near-abolition of symptoms with the resveratrol add-on: total WOMAC (0-96) fell from 59.6 to 8.1 by day 90, while the meloxicam-plus-placebo arm moved from 63.7 to 56. Liver and kidney markers, lipids and blood counts stayed in the normal range, so 500 mg/day was well tolerated.

Population

Adults 45-75 with mild-to-moderate knee osteoarthritis (WOMAC >50/96 at baseline), Sulaimani, Iraq

Intervention

Resveratrol 500 mg once daily for 90 days, added to meloxicam 15 mg/day in both arms

Comparator

Placebo capsule (both arms continued meloxicam)

Limitations

The between-group effect dwarfs anything recorded for any osteoarthritis intervention, including NSAIDs themselves, and the placebo-plus-meloxicam arm's near-total lack of improvement over 90 days is itself unusual. Single city (described as multi-center across its facilities), a University of Sulaimani PhD project, completer-based analysis (50 against 42 analysed of 55 randomised per arm), baseline gender imbalance and a baseline difference in serum GPT. The numbers above are from its Table 4; Table 1 gives the placebo arm's baseline WOMAC as 59.3 and Table 4 as 63.7.