Several Treatment Approaches For Back Pain

The place to begin with your back stiffness could be either your bones, muscles or any other structures in the spine. Whilst some folk experience consistent agony, there are others who deal with irregular break outs of agony. The agony might be acute or lifeless. Back ache usually occurs in the back and neck area. Some times, the back pain may spread out to the legs and feet.

There are several kind of medicines available which offer relief from back ache. These include both- non steroidal and anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, naproxen sodium and carisoprodol. Muscle relaxants help lessen the agony. You can choose from drugs like cyclobenzaprine, diazepam, carisoprodol and methocarbamol. Anticonvulsants like clonezepam, carbamazepine and valproate also help treat back trouble that occurs simultaneously with leg discomfort. Tricyclic anti-depression drugs like nortriptyline, amitriptyline, desipramine doxepin, and imipramine perhaps used to treat harsh back aches.

Transcutaneous electric nerve kick is also an effective technique to treat prolonged back pain. This method delivers electrical current to key points on your nervous system. This is delivered through electrodes taped to your skin. This strategy excites the discharge of pain releasing endorphins.

Chiropractic treatment is yet another method to treat back pain. In this method, trained chiropractic consultants apply a controlled, unexpected force to a bone joint through their hands. The joint's movement may accompanied by a cracking sound. This procedure restores standard spinal movement and reduces back pain. Chiropractic doctors might also use massages and stretch exercises to relax muscles that produce cramps.

However, if none of the above mentioned methods help treat your back ache, then you may need cortisone injections. Cortisone injections are administered around the spinal cord. Typically, a cortisone injection provides relief for six weeks. Botox injections may also be used to treat back pain. The effect of botox injections lasts for about three months, these injections paralyze pain-strained muscles.

The last retort to treat back pain would be surgery. There are some people who experience piercing pain and may need surgery to get rid of the problem. Here are some of the back surgery options that you can consider.

Fusion: this particular surgery is performed with the insertion of a bone graft between two vertebrae, which are then joined together with metal plates or screws. However, this procedure may also lead to arthritis in the future.

Disk replacement: An artificial disk is inserted here between two vertebrae as a replacement cushion.

Partial Removal of disk: this surgical strategy involves the removal of a part of the disk that might be squeezing your nerves and causing pain.

How Effective Are Muscle Relaxants?

Muscle relaxants are effective in the management of low back pain. However, the side effects require that they should be used with caution.

Cyclobenzaprine hydrochloride has the most recent and largest clinical trials demonstrating its benefit, but carisoprodol, diazepam and metaxalone also appear to be effective.

In 1989 researches compared the effectiveness of cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril) alone with diflunisal (Dolobid), placebo, and a combination of cyclobenzaprine and diflunisal in the treatment of acute low back pain and spasm. During the ten-day study period, the combined treatment group demonstrated significantly superior improvements in global ratings on day four, but not on day two or seven. This study suggested some effectiveness of combined analgesic and muscle relaxant therapy when utilized early in the initial week of pain onset.

Another study compared the effects of combined cyclobenzaprine and naproxen (Naprosyn) with naproxen alone and also found combination therapy to be superior in reducing tenderness, spasm, and range of motion in patients with low back pain and spasm.

Cyclobenzaprine and carisoprodol were compared in the treatment of patients with acute thoracolumbar pain and spasm rated moderate to severe and of no longer than seven days duration. Both drugs were effective, without significant differences between the treatment groups. Significant improvements were noted in physician rated mobility and in patients' visual analogue scores on follow up days four and eight. While 60% of patients experienced side effects in the form of drowsiness or fatigue, these differences were not significantly different between treatment groups and only eight percent of patients from each group discontinued treatment.

In an attempt to determine the mechanism of action of carisoprodol in the treatment of low back pain, a study was carried out comparing its effectiveness to that of a sedative medication butabarbital, and a placebo. Carisoprodol was significantly more effective in providing both pain relief and improvements in range of motion. The results of this study suggest that the effects of carisoprodol are not secondary to its sedative effects alone. In addition to the skeletal muscle-relaxing effects, carisoprodol also produces weak anticholinergic, antipyretic, and analgesic effects.

In an earlier study, diazepam (Valium) was found to offer no significant subjective or objective benefit, when compared to placebo, in patients treated for low back pain. Carisoprodol (Soma) was found to be superior to diazepam in the treatment of patients with "at least moderately severe" low back pain and spasm of no longer than seven days duration. In this study, the overall incidence of adverse reactions was higher in the diazepam treated group but was not of statistical significance.