We found silver level evidence ( www.cochranemsk.org ) concerning the beneficial effects of mineral baths compared to no treatment .
Of all other balneological treatments no clear effects were found .
BACKGROUND Balneotherapy ( or spa therapy , mineral baths ) for patients with arthritis is one of the oldest forms of therapy .
One of the aims of balneotherapy is to soothe the pain and as a consequence to relieve patients ' suffering and make them feel well .
In this up date we included one extra study .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness of  balneotherapy  for patients with osteoarthritis ( OA ) .
Prolonged effects of 3 week therapy in a spa resort on lumbar spine, knee and hip osteoarthritis: follow-up after 6 months. A randomized controlled trial.
Spa therapy is frequently used in daily rheumatological practice , but its benefit remains to be evaluated . A prospect i ve r and omized controlled study was conducted in 1993 in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip , knee or lumbar spine . Treatment was either  spa therapy at Vichy ( France ) of 3 weeks duration ( spa group ) or usual therapy ( control group ) . Assessment criteria were pain ( visual analogue scale ) , functional impairment ( Lequesne 's index for hip or knee disease , Main and Waddell 's for lumbar spinal diseases ) , quality of life index [ revised Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale ( AIMS 2 ) ] , and  analgesic and /or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ( NSAID ) consumption .  Patients were included by r and omization into one of the two arms ( spa or control ) and assessment criteria were collected before spa therapy or the control period , and 3 and 24 weeks thereafter . A total of 188 patients ( lumbar spine 95 , knee 64 , hip 29 ) were included in the study ( spa group 91 , control group 97 ) . Changes in the assessment criteria after a 6 month follow-up period showed improvement in terms of pain , functional impairment and quality of life , with a reduced intake of symptomatic drugs ( NSAID and analgesic drugs ) in the spa group . This study suggests that spa therapy of 3 weeks duration has a prolonged , beneficial , symptomatic effect in osteoarthritis
We found silver level evidence ( www.cochranemsk.org ) concerning the beneficial effects of mineral baths compared to no treatment .
Of all other balneological treatments no clear effects were found .
BACKGROUND Balneotherapy ( or spa therapy , mineral baths ) for patients with arthritis is one of the oldest forms of therapy .
One of the aims of balneotherapy is to soothe the pain and as a consequence to relieve patients ' suffering and make them feel well .
In this up date we included one extra study .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness of  balneotherapy  for patients with osteoarthritis ( OA ) .