Which treatments provide the most relief for pharyngitis pain?
Don’t bother with herbals or zinc
A Cochrane review of 7 RCTs of Chinese herbal remedies for sore throat pain found poor-quality methodology and thus, couldn’t recommend their use.7
A Cochrane review of zinc supplementation (13 therapeutic trials [N=966] and 2 preventive trials [N=394]) showed no significant improvement in pharyngitis symptoms compared with placebo, although zinc decreases the duration of the common cold, if taken within the first 24 hours of cold onset (standardized mean difference, -0.97; 95% CI, -1.56 to -0.38; P=.001).8 More patients in the intervention group experienced side effects (bad taste and nausea).
Recommendations
A primary care review article in the New England Journal of Medicine recommended acetaminophen as the drug of choice, while noting that ibuprofen has been shown in some studies to be more effective.9 The authors also recommended anesthetic gargles or lozenges. Antibiotics should be used in medical management only to prevent complications from Streptococcus-antigen-confirmed pharyngitis, they say.
Treatments recommended by the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement include acetaminophen or ibuprofen, throat lozenges or hard candy, gargling with salt water (¼ tsp salt per 8 oz water), eating soft foods and frozen desserts, drinking cool or warm liquids, and antibiotics for bacterial infections.10
