STUDY: Quercetin in men with category III chronic prostatitis: a preliminary prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

JOURNAL: Urology 1999 Dec;54(6):960-3

AUTHORS: Shoskes DA, Zeitlin SI, Shahed A, Rajfer J.

ABSTRACT: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) category III chronic prostatitis syndromes (nonbacterial chronic prostatitis and prostatodynia) are common disorders with few effective therapies. Bioflavonoids have recently been shown in an open-label study to improve the symptoms of these disorders in a significant proportion of men. The aim of this study was to confirm these findings in a prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. RESULTS: Both the quercetin and placebo groups were similar in age, symptom duration, and initial symptom score. Patients taking placebo had a mean improvement in NIH symptom score from 20.2 to 18.8 (not significant), while those taking the bioflavonoid had a mean improvement from 21.0 to 13.1 (P = 0.003). Twenty percent of patients taking placebo and 67% of patients taking the bioflavonoid had an improvement of symptoms of at least 25%. In the 17 patients who received quercetin in the open-label study, 82% had at least a 25% improvement in symptom score. CONCLUSIONS: Therapy with the bioflavonoid quercetin is well tolerated and provides significant symptomatic improvement in most men with chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

COMMENTARY: Chronic prostatitis is a troublesome condition that can be difficult to control. Typically, long term antibiotics (doxycycline) are considered the only effective treatment (curiously, not because of their anti-microbial effects, but rather because of their probable anti-inflammatory effect). Quercetin is available in many forms and may offer a safe and effective means for many men to control this painful problem. Quercetin is also an effective inhibitor of digestive allergy (it stops basophil degranulation; the process by which histamine is released into the gut and a fairly potent anti-mutagen.