Which medications are best for treating acute low back pain?

Acute low back pain is a common cause of disability. An analysis in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research examined which non-opioid drugs are best for treating this condition.

The analysis, which included all randomized controlled trials published to date (18 studies with 3,478 patients), showed that muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) could effectively and rapidly reduce symptoms.

The combination of NSAIDs and paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) was associated with a greater improvement than NSAIDs alone.

"This is a first step towards the optimization of the management of acute low back pain. However, specific patient characteristics such as having allergies and comorbidities must always be taken into consideration," said lead author Alice Baroncini, MD, Ph.D., of RWTH University Hospital in Germany. "Further research will need to focus on the identification of the type of drugs that not only offer the best and quickest pain relief, but also show the lowest rate of symptom recurrence."