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Oral alendronate and nasal calcitonin are the 2 most commonly prescribed non-estrogen therapies for postmenopausal osteoporosis. In this randomized trial, supported by the maker of alendronate, researchers compared the 2 treatments in 299 osteoporotic women (mean age, 64) who were 16 years postmenopausal, on average.
The women received oral alendronate (10 mg daily), an alendronate placebo tablet, or open-label intranasal calcitonin (200 IU daily). After 12 months, the improvement in bone mineral density (BMD) at all 3 measured sites (lumbar spine, femoral neck, trochanter) was significantly greater in the alendronate group than in the placebo and calcitonin groups. In contrast, the change in BMD in the calcitonin group exceeded that in the …