[Calcitonin as medication in pain?]

An antinociceptive effect of calcitonin has been reported in numerous studies on both animals and humans. In the present article, we review the controlled clinical studies in which calcitonin has been used to relieve skeletal pain (cancer metastases, osteoporotic fractures) as well as extraskeletal pain (phantom limb pain, neurogenic claudication, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, migraine). To date, a positive effect of calcitonin is well documented against placebo in short-term treatment of skeletal pain. However, for long-term treatment of skeletal pain, and for the treatment of extraskeletal pain, the present documentation is insufficient. No controlled trials against conventional analgesic treatment is published. Thus, further studies are required before the place of calcitonin in pain therapy can be established.