B complex vitamins for analgesic therapy

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The B complex vi-tamins have been used as single therapy or combined to other drugs, such as anti-inflammatory drugs, in different clinical situ-ations, such as degenerative spinal diseases, rheumatologic dise-ases, polyneuropathies and in different postoperative situations. This study aimed at identifying in the scientific literature most recent evidences of the use of B complex vitamins as analgesic therapy and at describing clinical situations where their analgesic action could be observed. " pyri-doxine " and " cyanocobalamin " . Among 40 studies found, we have selected just musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain trials with humans, and where B complex vitamins were used as anal-gesic agents. From these, 13 studies were selected for meeting inclusion criteria. In all of them, B complex vitamins played ro-les in analgesia, even when in single therapy. B complex vitamins had also anti-inflammatory and anti-pruritus action, in addition to improving functionality. CONCLUSION: Existing studies, although scarce and hete-rogeneous, have shown that B complex vitamins have analgesic effect. They are considered safe and have low cost and have sho-wn to be a good option as adjuvant analgesic therapy.