Potential Study: Can Omega-3 purified Fatty Acids Treat Endometriosis Pain?

Abokhrais and colleagues put forth a procedure to test Omega-3 purified Fatty Acids as a solution to Endometriosis-associated pain.

Key Points

Highlights:

• This paper outlines a procedure that can potentially be used to test the effectiveness of Omega-3 purified fatty acids (PUFA) in combatting endometriosis pain.

Importance:

• Endometriosis pain can adversely affect a woman’s quality of life.
• The authors highlight the adverse impact of endometriosis on productivity.

What’s done here?

•  A two-arm, parallel, double-blind, randomized, controlled pilot study that seeks to identify the value in Omega-3 PUFA to treat endometriosis-associated pain, designed as below.
  • Participants: Women with surgically diagnosed endometriosis with endometriosis-associated pelvic pain.
  • Participants are randomized to one of two treatment groups:
    • Omega-3-acid ethyl ester filled capsules (Omacor 1000 mg) or 
    • Comparator capsule, which is an olive oil soft gelatin capsule
  • The participants are required to take 2 capsules at two different times during the day for a total of 8 weeks.
  • The researchers used a myriad of data collection tools over the course of the study. The tools are as follows:
    • Pain scores collected via text message
    • Questionnaires administered at the beginning of the study and at 8 weeks.
    • Treatment diaries, which records all the medications taken by the participants over the course of the study
    • Participant log
  • The data from this study would be subject to data analysis.
• The primary outcomes being analyzed in this study are recruitment and retention rates
• The secondary outcomes are two-pronged. The researchers hope to garner an estimation of variability with respect to the responses they could possibly obtain. They also want to determine the acceptability of the proposed procedures.

Key results:

• This paper delineates a project’s procedures, but it has yet to run the experiment. So, there are no results to discuss as of yet.

Limitations of the study:

• The authors listed the broad exclusion and inclusion criteria as one potential limitation.
• The second limitation illuminated by the authors is the lack of a placebo identical to the Omega-3 PUFA.

Lay Summary

Abokhrais et al. published a paper titled “A pilot randomized double-blind controlled trial of the efficacy of purified fatty acids for the treatment of women with endometriosis-associated pain (PurFECT): study protocol” in Pilot and Feasibility Studies. The aforementioned authors are primarily from the University of Edinburgh. Their article delineates a procedure that could be potentially be used to test the effectiveness of Omega-3 purified fatty acids (PUFA) for the purpose of addressing endometriosis pain.

The study discussed in this article has 2 goals. The primary goal of the study is to assess the recruitment and retention rates. The secondary goal of the study is to get a sense of the variability of response as well as understand the acceptability of the procedures outlined in the paper.

The study would tentatively recruit women with surgically diagnosed endometriosis. These women would also suffer from endometriosis-associated pelvic pain. The participants would be randomized to one of two groups. The first group would get the Omega-3-acid ethyl ester filled capsules, called the Omacor 100 mg capsule, and the second group would get a comparator capsule, which is an olive oil soft gelatin capsule. The participants would be required to take these capsules twice a day for 8 weeks. The researchers would then use a myriad of tools including questionnaires, pain scores, treatment diaries, and participant logs in order to achieve the goals mentioned previously. The data from the experiment would be subject to data analysis.

Research Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29721332