Research paper
Multivitamin therapy for recurrent aphthous stomatitis: a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial.
Study answer
What this study found
Daily multivitamin supplementation did not reduce recurrent aphthous stomatitis frequency or duration, so routine prophylactic use is not supported. The number of new episodes over 1 year was similar in the multivitamin and placebo groups, 4.19 (4.74) versus 4.60 (4.58), with a treatment effect p value of .69 and treatment-by-group interaction p value of .40. Episode duration was also similar, 8.66 (4.60) days versus 8.99 (5.22) days. Pain scores, normalcy of diet during episodes, and adverse events were not meaningfully different; none were reported as adverse events.
- Study & population
- Randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial in adults 18 years and older with idiopathic minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis, defined as at least three episodes in the prior 12 months.
- Intervention
- Participants in the active arm received one oral generic multivitamin capsule daily for 365 days.
- Key limitation
- Single-center trial in a relatively specific population with idiopathic minor RAS, which limits generalizability.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is a painful condition of unknown etiology, affecting more than 2.5 billion people worldwide. Vitamin deficiencies have been implicated as a possible cause. METHODS The authors conducted a single-center,…