What is the evidence for the use of quinine to treat leg cramps?
There is little convincing scientific evidence for prescribing quinine for leg cramps. Studies of patients with nocturnal leg cramps have been small, were not randomized, controlled trials, and had other shortcomings. Not surprisingly, the FDA recently reported again that the risk of severe side effects from quinine outweighed any potential benefit for the following conditions:Nocturnal leg cramps: Two meta-analyses (results pooled from a number of studies) were completed before the FDA ban addressed the lack of efficacy and safety issues of quinine for leg cramps. The first, from 1995, using published studies from 1964 to 1994, found that although taking quinine resulted in decreased frequency of leg cramps, it did not reduce the severity or duration of a given episode. Since longer use seemed to produce a greater reduction in the number of cramps, the authors concluded that quinine must be taken for at least four weeks on a regular basis before its effectiveness could be evaluated in
