Does Quinine Prevent Nocturnal Leg Cramps?

Elderly patients suffer a high incidence of nocturnal leg cramps and often take quinine to prevent them, even though there is no clear evidence that it works. This randomized crossover trial evaluated quinine in 16 ambulatory elderly men with two or more leg cramps per week.

The double-blind study involved four 2-week phases: a washout phase, a treatment phase in which patients received either quinine (200 mg) or placebo at bedtime, a second washout phase, and a crossover treatment phase. During quinine therapy, patients had no significant reductions in self-reported leg-cramp frequency (mean, 3.5 vs. 4.2), duration (152 vs. 163 seconds), or severity (4.2 vs. 4.0 on a scale of 1 to 10), as compared with placebo.

Although this study was too sm…