Medications Used for the Treatment of Back Pain

Abstract

The unique nature in which patients experience pain and their individual receptiveness to pain management treatments make the process of effectively managing a patient’s lumbar radicular and non-radicular back pain a complicated task for practitioners. To simplify the process, physicians are encouraged to adhere to a proven pain management algorithm and to approach each patient’s treatment as a unique combination of its variables. The core variables within the pain management algorithm are many, but the primary drivers are the utilization of minimally invasive and invasive surgical techniques, physical medicine, as well as the use of pain medication to ameliorate the patient’s pain symptoms. This chapter focuses exclusively on the importance of NSAIDs, acetaminophen, antidepressants, muscle relaxants, neuropathic medications, and opioids to the pain management algorithm and the standard protocol doctors should follow to protect themselves and their patients when using such medications. This chapter also outlines the current best practices of pain medication prescribing, delving deeper into their appropriate uses for their most popular variants and the dangers associated with their utilization as pain control adjuvants. It also focuses on limiting the use of long-term narcotic therapy.