CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Anesthesiology and Animal Pain Management
This article is part of the Research TopicPain Assessment and Management in Veterinary Medicine - Volume IIView all 5 articles
Levagen+ (Palmitoylethanolamide) alleviates joint pain and reduces the impact of joint pain in canines and felines: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomised Clinical Trial
Provisionally accepted
- 1RDC Clinical, Brisbane, Australia
- 2The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- 3The University of Queensland School of Veterinary Science, Gatton, Australia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study assessed the effectiveness of Levagen+ (palmitoylethanolamide), a fatty acid amide and lipid mediator, for both the alleviation and impact of joint pain, in canines and felines. This prospective double-blinded, randomised placebo-controlled study supplemented 50 canines and 50 felines experiencing joint pain daily for 6 weeks with either Levagen+ or a placebo taken orally. Efficacy was determined in canines using the Canine Brief Pain Index (CBPI) and in felines using the Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index (FMPI), both completed by owners at baseline, week 2, week 4 and week 6. Data were analysed with distribution-appropriate tests and a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA to assess group, time, and interaction effects across outcomes. In canines, significantly more were classified as successfully treated in the Levagen+ group compared to the placebo group (76% vs 40%; p<0.05), with significant improvements in multiple pain and functional interference domains. In felines, significant between-group differences were observed for specific functional tasks [jumping up (p<0.05), jumping down (p<0.05)] and in scores for current pain [week 2 (p<0.05) and week 6 (p<0.05)]. Levagen+ was well tolerated in both species. These findings supported the hypothesis that Levagen+ reduces the impact of joint pain in companion animals.
Keywords: canines, Felines, joint pain, Levagen+, Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA)
Received: 24 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Briskey, Craddock, Rao and Mills. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amanda Rao
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.