Analgesic Potential of Light Therapy in Knee Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive joint disease that affects 13% of Canadians. Managing joint pain is one of the main goals for treating OA and other musculoskeletal disorders. Alleviating chronic pain pharmacologically has several potential drawbacks including diminishing efficacy, toxicity, adverse side-effects, and patient anxiety. Current treatments consist mainly of oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories which are associated with significant side-effects such as higher risk of gastrointestinal (GI)ulcers and upper GI bleeds. Opioids as well are used but again present the risk that are associated with sedation, constipation and for some individuals substance disorders and addiction. Non-pharmacological treatments for OA pain may be beneficial.

Recently, preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that green ambient light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) produced profound analgesia in chronic pain patients. Migraineurs exposed to this green light therapy (GLT) for 1-2 hours per day for 10 weeks reported a significant reduction in both headache days as well as headache intensity. Similarly, fibromyalgia patients treated with the same conditions reported a significant reduction in average pain intensity. Both patient groups also reported improvements in quality-of-life following treatment as measured by the EQ-5D-5L survey and, importantly, no adverse events were reported. White LEDs were used as a control in both trials and did not provide any analgesic benefit.

In pre-clinical rodent models, activation of the endogenous opioid system appears to be contributing to the analgesic effects of green light therapy. It is unknown if green light therapy may also be beneficial for osteoarthritis pain.

This study is a one-way crossover clinical design to determine whether exposure to green light therapy will improve pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Initially, patients will receive White LED exposure (intensity: 4 lux, 1-2 hr/day), then they will be crossed over to Green LED exposure (wavelength 525nm, intensity: 4 lux, 1-2 hrs/day). The patients will not be told which one is the treatment and which one is the control.

Fourty patients attending the Chronic Pain Management Clinic with knee OA (as defined by the American College of Rheumatology guidelines) will be recruited to the study. Participants will be required to attend 4 visits during the 26 week study. In this study two light treatments will be tested (white LED vs green LED). Following the first clinic visit, we will ask participants to gather baseline pain information for 4 weeks without any light intervention (NRS-PI Pain Scale recorded in a pain diary). During weeks 5-15 participants will be exposed to white LEDs for 1-2 hours per day in a dark room at home, patients will then undergo a 2 week washout period without LED use. Green LEDs will be provided for home use for 1-2 hours per day (in a dark room) for the final 10 weeks. Visits to the clinic will follow the completion of both the white-light and green light treatments. Participants will be required to complete the NRS-PI Pain Scale every day and questionnaires at every visit. Questionnaires include the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form, The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC), and the EuropQol EQ-5D-5L.