Adhesive capsulitis is a condition whose pathogenesis remains unclear and for which there is no consensus about the best medical treatment.

Writing recently in the Annals, Buchbinder and her colleagues examined 50 participants (24 receiving active treatment, 26 placebo) from community based rheumatology practices.¹ The trial concluded that a “3 week course of 30 mg prednisolone daily is of significant short term benefit in adhesive capsulitis, but benefits are not maintained beyond 6 weeks”.

Although the authors were careful with their inclusion criteria, they failed to set a cut off point from the time of onset of pain and stiffness of the shoulder. Their subjects had a mean (SD) duration of symptoms of 25.3 (13.2) weeks. This indicates that some of the participants in this study had had a frozen shoulder for 38.6 weeks or approximately 9 months. The treatment period was limited to 3 weeks, regardless of …