Burning mouth syndrome (BMS): an open trial of comparative efficacy of alpha-lipoic acid (thioctic acid) with other therapies.

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Burning mouth syndrome (BMS): an open trial of comparative efficacy of alpha-lipoic acid (thioctic acid) with other therapies.

Femiano F.
Stomatology Clinic II, University of Medicine and Surgery, Naples, Italy.

BACKGROUND: Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is a potent antioxidant mitochondrial coenzyme, trometamol salt of thioctic acid, shown in clinical studies to be neuroprotective and in a preliminary study to have an effect on the symptomatology of Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS). METHODS: We were interested in extending our studies as to whether alpha-lipoic acid might improve the symptomatology in BMS and therefore carried out a larger open controlled clinical study on the effects of alpha-lipoic acid on BMS symptomatology. RESULTS: We have examined the effects on 4 groups of 20 patients with BMS of ALA, compared with bethanecol, Biotene and placebo, and found ALA of remarkable benefit with minimal adverse effects. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that double-blind randomized controlled multicenter studies of ALA are indicated.

PMID: 12473978 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]