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PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND – British researchers have shown in a randomized, controlled trial that magnetic bracelets relieve the pain of hip and knee osteoarthritis-but they couldn’t completely rule out a placebo effect.

The researchers with Peninsula Medical School here randomly assigned 194 men and women ages 45 to 80 years to wear a standard-strength, weak or non-magnetic bracelet on their wrist for 12 weeks, at which point their scores on the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) tiffany jewelry were compared with those at baseline.

The patients who wore the standard magnetic bracelet (with a field strength of 170 to 200 mTesla), experienced an average 27% reduction in their WOMAC pain scores, as well as improvements in WOMAC function and visual analogue pain scores.

Statistically, the improvements in the standard magnet group were significantly better than those in the placebo group, but not the weak magnet group.

The results did not change significantly when researchers accounted for patients’ sex or analgesic use. “Whatever the mechanism, the benefit from magnetic bracelets seems clinically useful,” Dr. Tim Harlow and colleagues wrote in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal.

They pointed out the mean reductions in WOMAC pain and function scores in the standard-magnet bracelets group were similar to those achieved with nonsteroidal topical creams, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (including COX-2 inhibitors) and exercise therapy.

The analysis accounted for the fact some participants identified their assigned bracelet. Although this unblinding did not affect the results, the researchers cautioned they cannot be certain whether their data show a specific effect of magnets, a placebo effect, or both.