MAINTENANCE THERAPY FOR ADDED BONE MASS OR HOW TO KEEP THE PROFIT AFTER WITHDRAWAL OF THERAPY OF OSTEOPENIA

Since continuous therapy for osteoporosis can be expensive and may hav e detrimental effects, there is a need to develop a strategy to mainta in bone mass after withdrawal of treatment. The bone maintained by est rogen and calcitonin therapies and exercise, but the added bone induce d by anabolic agents disappears upon cessation of treatment. To avoid this pitfall, the concepts of activation, restore and maintain (ARM) o r loss, restore and maintain (LRM), the on/off administration of combi ned anabolic agent with an antiresorptive or antiactivation agent, and cyclical treatment of the two regimes have been employed successfully in ''keeping the profit'' (maintaining bone) in preclinical studies. The data for the disappearance of bone upon cessation of certain osteo penic treatments, its mechanism of loss and the development of mainten ance concept and subsequent preclinical studies indicate that there wa s no need for costly continuous therapy in the treatment strategy for osteoporosis.