High versus low dosing of oral colchicine for early acute gout flare: Twenty‐four–hour outcome of the first multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, parallel‐group, dose‐comparison colchicine study

Abstract Objective Despite widespread use of colchicine, the evidence basis for oral colchicine therapy and dosing in acute gout remains limited. The aim of this trial was to compare low‐dose colchicine (abbreviated at 1 hour) and high‐dose colchicine (prolonged over 6 hours) with placebo in gout flare, using regimens producing comparable maximum plasma concentrations in healthy volunteers. Methods This multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, parallel‐group study compared self‐administered low‐dose colchicine (1.8 mg total over 1 hour) and high‐dose colchicine (4.8 mg total over 6 hours) with placebo. The primary end point was ≥50% pain reduction at 24 hours without rescue medication. Results There were 184 patients in the intent‐to‐treat analysis. Responders included 28 of 74 patients (37.8%) in the low‐dose group, 17 of 52 patients (32.7%) in the high‐dose group, and 9 of 58 patients (15.5%) in the placebo group ( P = 0.005 and P = 0.034, respectively, versus placebo). Rescue medication was taken within the first 24 hours by 23 patients (31.1%) in the low‐dose group ( P = 0.027 versus placebo), 18 patients (34.6%) in the high‐dose group ( P = 0.103 versus placebo), and 29 patients (50.0%) in the placebo group. The low‐dose group had an adverse event (AE) profile similar to that of the placebo group, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.5 (95% confidence interval 95% CI 0.7–3.2). High‐dose colchicine was associated with significantly more diarrhea, vomiting, and other AEs compared with low‐dose colchicine or placebo. With high‐dose colchicine, 40 patients (76.9%) had diarrhea (OR 21.3 95% CI 7.9–56.9), 10 (19.2%) had severe diarrhea, and 9 (17.3%) had vomiting. With low‐dose colchicine, 23.0% of the patients had diarrhea (OR 1.9 95% CI 0.8–4.8), none had severe diarrhea, and none had vomiting. Conclusion Low‐dose colchicine yielded both maximum plasma concentration and early gout flare efficacy comparable with that of high‐dose colchicine, with a safety profile indistinguishable from that of placebo.