Muscle relaxants ineffective in reducing lower back pain, comes with adverse effects: Study – Hindustan Times

According to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal of the British Medical Association, BMJ, muscle relaxant drugs prescribed for lower back pain are largely ineffective in ensuring long-term benefits.

The research was carried out in the form of 31 randomised controlled trials involving over 6,500 participants to gauge the effectiveness of prescribing muscle relaxants. It showed that even though muscle relaxants might effectively reduce pain in the short term it has no significant long-term benefits, and comes with an increased risk of side effects. Researchers cautioned that large trials are needed to ensure certainties about the use of medication for lower back pain.

The researcher also urged clinicians to be transparent about the possible effects of pain medication while prescribing them to their patients. “We would encourage clinicians to discuss this uncertainty in the efficacy and safety of muscle relaxants with patients, sharing information about the possibility for a worthwhile benefit in pain reduction but increased risk of experiencing a non-serious adverse event, to allow them to make informed treatment decisions,” they wrote.

The research also found out that non-benzodiazepine antispasmodic drugs reduced the intensity of the pain at the two-week mark in patients suffering from acute lower back pain, but the effect is too small to meet clinical thresholds. Non-benzodiazepine antispasmodics drugs, however, had little to no effect on the pain. Low and very low certainty evidence also pointed to such drugs increasing the risk of adverse effects like headache, nausea, drowsiness. Neither drugs had any long term effect on pain.

“Large, high quality, placebo controlled trials are urgently needed to resolve uncertainties about the efficacy and safety of muscle relaxants for low back pain,” the researchers concluded in their study.