Trial reportAnnals of family medicine
Vitamin D supplementation for nonspecific musculoskeletal pain in non-Western immigrants: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Efficacy of Vitamin D Supplementation in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Conditional Recommendations for Specific Dietary Ingredients as an Approach to Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Evidence-Based Decision Aid for Health Care Providers, Participants, and Policy Makers.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2019Guideline
- Effect of vitamin D supplementation in chronic widespread pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical rheumatology · 2017Pooled it
- Does vitamin D supplementation alleviate chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical rheumatology · 2017Pooled it
- Vitamin D for the treatment of chronic painful conditions in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Updated Meta-analysis Reveals Limited Efficacy of Vitamin D Supplementation in Chronic Low Back Pain.In vivo (Athens, Greece)Pooled it
- Repletion of vitamin D associated with deterioration of sleep quality among postmenopausal women.Preventive medicine · 2016Trial
- Relationship Between Vitamin D Status, Pain Severity, and Functional Disability in Chronic Low Back Pain.Cureus · 2026Article
- Gut Microbiota: A Modulator and Therapeutic Target for Chronic Pain.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Effects of vitamin D supplementation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Heliyon · 2025Review
- Neuronutritional Approach to Fibromyalgia Management: A Narrative Review.Pain and therapy · 2024Review
- The effect of vitamin D treatment on quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia.Irish journal of medical science · 2024Article
- The Effect of Vitamin DInternational journal of dentistry · 2022Article
- Vitamin D levels and pain outcomes in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients undergoing spine fusion.Spine deformity · 2021Article
- Effect of supplementation of vitamin D and calcium on patients suffering from chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain: A pre-post study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2021Article
- Effects of Nutritional Interventions in the Control of Musculoskeletal Pain: An Integrative Review.Nutrients · 2020Review
- Food in Chronic Pain: Friend or Foe?Nutrients · 2020Article
- Pain Severity and Vitamin D Deficiency in IBD Patients.Nutrients · 2019Article
- From being restrained to recapturing vitality: non-western immigrant women's experiences of undergoing vitamin D treatment after childbirth.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2019Article
- Cholecalciferol (Vitamin DMolecular neurobiology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeMany non-Western immigrants report musculoskeletal pains that are hard to treat. We studied the effect of high-dose vitamin D(3) on nonspecific persistent musculoskeletal complaints in vitamin D-deficient non-Western immigrants and assessed correlation of pain patterns with benefit.
methodsWe conducted a semi-crossover randomized controlled trial between February 2008 and February 2010 in primary care in 84 non-Western immigrants visiting their general practitioner for nonspecific musculoskeletal pain. At baseline, patients were randomized to placebo or vitamin D (150,000 IU vitamin D(3) orally); at week 6, patients in the original vitamin D group were randomized a second time to receive vitamin D (again) or to switch to placebo, whereas patients in the original placebo group were all switched to vitamin D. The main outcome was self-assessed change in pain after the first 6 weeks.
resultsPatients in the vitamin D group were significantly more likely than their counterparts in the placebo group to report pain relief 6 weeks after treatment (34.9% vs 19.5%, P = .04). The former were also more likely to report an improved ability to walk stairs (21.0% vs 8.4%, P = .008). Pain pattern was not correlated with the success of treatment. In a nonsignificant trend, patients receiving vitamin D over 12 weeks were more likely to have an improvement than patients receiving it over 6 weeks.
conclusionsThere is a small positive effect 6 weeks after high-dose vitamin D(3) on persistent nonspecific musculoskeletal pain. Future research should focus on longer follow-up, higher supplementation doses, and mental health.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.