A steroid pill may be as good as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for treating painful gout, new research suggests.
Researchers who compared the steroid prednisolone with the arthritis medication indomethacin found both drugs offered a similar degree of pain reduction. And while indomethacin (Indocin) appeared to cause more minor side effects, neither treatment prompted serious complications, the researchers said.
![Prednisolone-2D-skeletal.svg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Prednisolone-2D-skeletal.svg/220px-Prednisolone-2D-skeletal.svg.png)
![Indometacin skeletal.svg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Indometacin_skeletal.svg/220px-Indometacin_skeletal.svg.png)
Smaller investigations have pointed in the same direction, said study lead author Dr. Timothy Rainer, a professor of emergency medicine at Cardiff University in Wales. But because the new findings are the product of a "larger and better-designed" effort, Rainer said steroid pills may gain standing among gout experts who usually stick with NSAIDs as their first-line treatment.
The bottom line is that there are choices, said Dr. Philip Mease, a rheumatologist with the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.
"That is the key message - that there are options," said Mease, who wasn't involved in the study. "Sometimes ER docs don't think about giving a tapering dose of prednisone, but it can be very effective at helping with gout, which can be damn painful."