NSAID Creams May Top Pills For Knee Pain

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Anti-inflammatory creams are better than pills for treating chronic knee pain, say British researchers.

The team at the Queen Mary University of London studied 585 people over age 50 and found the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) topical treatments worked as well as NSAID pills and caused fewer side effects such as indigestion, increasing blood pressure, or worsening asthma, BBC News reported.

The study appears on the U.K. National Institute for Health Research Web site.

In the past, doctors have likely under-prescribed topical creams because they didn't believe they were as effective as pills, an Arthritis Research Campaign spokeswoman told BBC News.