Effects of Nasal Calcitonin vs. Oral Gabapentin on Pain and Symptoms of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Clinical Trial Study

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a chronic and prevalent disease that occurs in 10.8% of the general population, mostly in old age. We designed the first clinical trial study to compare the effects of administering the nasal salmon calcitonin spray and gabapentin in patients with LSS. In this clinical trial, 90 patients with symptoms of neurogenic claudication and magnetic resonance imaging-proven LSS were randomly assigned to nasal salmon calcitonin, gabapentin, or placebo treatments for eight weeks (30 participants in each group). This was followed by a washout period of four weeks. After three months of study and after four weeks off the prescription, mean values of Oswestry Disability Index in the calcitonin, gabapentin, and control groups were 23 ± 12.05, 32 ± 16.08, and 38 ± 22.09, respectively (P ≤ 0.05, calcitonin group vs. gabapentin group, and P ≤ 0. 001, calcitonin group vs. control group with respect to pretreatment scores). Thus, three months after the treatment, although most of the patients in the control group had a satisfactory period of improvement, the improvement in the calcitonin group was more than the other two groups with a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05 when compared to gabapentin group and P ≤ 0.01 when compared to placebo group). We revealed that the 200 International Unit (IU) and nasal calcitonin spray daily are more effective compared to 300 mg gabapentin three times per day and the placebo effect for eight weeks of treatment of symptoms of patients with LSS.