I. Fogelman et G. Blake, EARLY POSTMENOPAUSAL BONE LOSS AND INTERMITTENT CYCLICAL ETIDRONATE THERAPY, Reviews in contemporary pharmacotherapy, 9(4), 1998, pp. 245-254
The bisphosphonates have increasingly been recognized as having an imp
ortant role to play in the treatment of established osteoporosis, part
icularly when hormone replacement therapy cannot be used. However, the
ir role in the prevention of bone loss, and in particular their effica
cy in the early postmenopausal period, is not clear. Recently, double-
blind placebo-controlled studies using intermittent cyclical therapy w
ith etidronate (ICT-etidronate) have been published and these are revi
ewed. It is shown that this treatment is highly effective in preventin
g bone loss throughout the skeleton, and in particular at the clinical
ly relevant sites of spine and femur. Treatment was well tolerated and
the incidence of adverse effects was comparable to that found in the
placebo-treated patients.