The Study
Does Starting Allopurinol Prolong Acute Treated Gout? A Randomized Clinical Trial
This study gave some people with gout a real medicine and others a fake pill, then saw if the real medicine made the pain last longer. It found no big difference, so it suggests the medicine probably doesn’t make the attack worse — but it’s not super sure because so few people were tested.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Doctors used to say don't start allopurinol when your joint is swollen and painful, but this study tested if it's safe to start anyway.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 553 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Starting allopurinol during a flare didn't make the pain last longer — so patients can begin treatment without waiting for the flare to end.
- 214 people took allopurinol; 17 took a placebo.
- 3Both groups got better in about 14 days on average.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
JCR: Journal of Clinical Rheumatology
Year
2015
Authors
Erica M. Hill, K. Sky, Michelle T Sit, Angelique N. Collamer, J. Higgs
Related Content
Claims (2)
Starting allopurinol at a low dose along with anti-inflammatory medication lowers the chance of acute gout flares when lowering uric acid levels.
Starting allopurinol at 100 mg per day and increasing to 200 mg per day after 14 days during an acute gout attack does not extend the length of the attack in patients with confirmed gout, a need for urate-lowering therapy, and normal kidney and liver function, when compared to a placebo.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.