Palmitoylethanolamide, a Special Food for Medical Purposes, in the Treatment of Chronic Pain: A Pooled Data Meta-analysis
Meta-analysisHumans
- Design
- Meta-analysis
- Subjects
- 12 studies of micronised or ultramicronised PEA in chronic or neuropathic pain: 3 double-blind placebo-controlled, 2 open-label against standard therapy, 7 open-label without comparator. Raw patient data pooled
- Dose used in the study
- Micronised and ultramicronised PEA as used in the included studies
- Duration
- Pain change tracked over time to day 60
- What was measured
- Pain intensity over time by generalized linear mixed model; proportion reaching a pain score of 3 or less by Kaplan-Meier
What the authors reported
Pain fell by about 1.04 points every 2 weeks on PEA against 0.20 on control. By day 60, 81 percent of PEA patients had a pain score of 3 or less against 41 percent of controls. Effect independent of age, sex or pain type. No serious adverse events reported.
Limits of this study
Most of the pooled data (9 of 12 studies) came from open-label studies, several without a control group, so the control comparison rests on a small subset. Two authors (Fusco, Schievano) and the data source are linked to Epitech, which makes the products studied. Pooled individual-patient analysis rather than a conventional meta-analysis of effect sizes.
Source
Entry checked against the abstract, supplied by Devlin on 2026-09-21. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.