Painkillers For Back Pain Are Dangerous And Ineffective

Experts have warned that powerful painkillers may no longer be effective against back pain. The drugs are also highly addictive and may be dangerous when taken long term.

A major review of clinical evidence has found that opioid painkillers offer minimal benefit for back pain. These painkillers typically include morphine, oxycodone and tramadol.

An examination of 7,295 patients from 20 clinical trials found that patients either suffered side effects upon taking the medication or stopped the drugs because they did not work. Even when the drugs were given at above recommended levels, the drugs still did not provide any medical benefit.

In addition, powerful painkillers also led to severe side effects such as dizziness, falls, addiction, and even death from overdose. Since the drugs tend to be ineffective, patients would take higher doses to reduce the pain.

Taking an opioid analgesic may reduce back pain, but the effect is rather small, according to professor Chris Maher, lead author of the study. Maher explains that people have made the mistake of believing that opioids are strong painkillers.

Led by the George Institute for Global Health located in Sydney, the study did not include codeine in the review because no trial data existed at the moment. Codeine is considered the mildest opioid painkiller. Maher argued that the conclusions of the study extended to codeine along with other powerful forms of painkillers, according to Daily Mail.

Back pain is one of the most frequent medical complaints as most people suffer pain at some point in their lives. As a result, opioid painkillers are prescribed to sufferers nearly 40 percent of the time.

Statistics show that half of back pain sufferers are still taking opioid painkillers even five years after their first diagnoses. One in every 550 patients who were prescribed with opioid painkillers died due to an overdose every three years.

Unfortunately, there are no set guidelines that indicate the correct dosage of painkillers to medical conditions, according to CBS News. This can mean that people who are looking to manage chronic pain may end up taking too little or too much of the drugs.

Painkillers are appropriate only for short-term and intermittent use, according to Dr. Martin Johnson, a chronic pain expert. For long-term problems, stretching and exercises can be far more effective.