Early postmenopausal bone loss and intermittent cyclical etidronate therapy

The bisphosphonates have increasingly been recognized as having an important role to play in the treatment of established osteoporosis, particularly when hormone replacement therapy cannot be used. However, their role in the prevention of bone loss, and in particular their efficacy in the early postmenopausal period, is not clear. Recently, double-blind placebo-controlled studies using intermittent cyclical therapy with etidronate (ICT-etidronate) have been published and these are reviewed. It is shown that this treatment is highly effective in preventing bone loss throughout the skeleton, and in particular at the clinically relevant sites of spine and femur. Treatment was well tolerated and the incidence of adverse effects was comparable to that found in the placebo-treated patients.