Low Back Pain and Sciatica Treatment: Medicine

Medications are used to control and help the painful symptoms of low back pain and sciatica, but they cannot cure the condition. Medications can be helpful when the pain is unbearable, but you'll want to make the lifestyle changes necessary to help treat the underlying cause of your sciatica or other form of lower back pain. (Check out some natural treatment and lifestyle modification treatment options for low back pain and sciatica.)

Surgery may be indicated for persistent back pain that involves an anatomical problem such as a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, or spondylolisthesis. Rarely, surgery may be performed on an emergency basis if there are severe symptoms, such as loss of bowel or bladder control, or if a tumor is present.

• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and NSAIDs
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Analgesics
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Antidepressants
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Muscle Relaxants
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Acetaminophen
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Laminectomy (Spinal Decompression)
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Spinal Fusion
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Diskectomy
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Disk Replacement
• Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Nucleoplasty
• Talking to Your Doctor About Low Back Pain and Sciatica

These drugs work to control the painful inflammation commonly associated with lower back pain and sciatica. Some prescription NSAIDs are higher doses of the same NSAIDs that are available without a...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and NSAIDs.

Prescription pain pills may be prescribed short term for severe pain of sciatica and low back pain, but will not cure the underlying cause(s) of your condition. To cure the underlying cause, you'll...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Analgesics.

Antidepressants might also be prescribed for lower back pain and sciatica treatment.

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Antidepressants.

Muscle relaxants help calm muscle spasms, therefore helping with the painful symptoms of lower back pain and sciatica. They may be ordered for short-term pain relief, but will not cure the pain. To...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Muscle Relaxants.

Acetaminophen relieves pain through different biological mechanisms than NSAIDs, which are a commonly prescribed category of drugs for low back pain and sciatica. It can cause or exacerbate liver...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Acetaminophen.

A laminectomy, also called spinal decompression, is an open surgical procedure that involves removing a small portion of bone in the spine, called the lamina, in order to alleviate the pressure on...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Laminectomy (Spinal Decompression).

Spinal fusion is a procedure that joins two bones (vertebrae) in the spinal column together to eliminate pain caused by movement. This, and any other surgery, is a major procedure and should only be...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Spinal Fusion.

A diskectomy is the removal of the protruding disc and part of the backbone and is done to potentially cure some of the pain associated with sciatica. The doctor makes an incision in the back, then a...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Diskectomy.

A relatively new procedure, total disc replacement is now available as an alternative to spinal fusion when the cause of the injury is a degenerated disc. In the procedure, an artificial disc is...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Disk Replacement.

In nucleoplasty, the surgeon inserts a wand-like transmitter into the disc while the patient is awake but lightly sedated. Guided by x-ray imaging, the surgeon sends radiofrequency pulses into the...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Nucleoplasty.

Bhagia SM. Slipman CW. Nirschl M. Isaac Z. El-Abd O. Sharps LS. Garvin C. Side effects and complications after percutaneous disc decompression using coblation technology. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation . 85(1):6-13, 2006 Jan.

Bridwell KH. Anderson PA. Boden SD. Vaccaro AR. Wang JC. What's new in spine surgery. Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery - American Volume. 90(7):1609-19, 2008 Jul.

Cohen SP. Williams S. Kurihara C. Griffith S. Larkin TM. Nucleoplasty with or without intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET) as a treatment for lumbar herniated disc. Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques . 18 Suppl:S119-24, 2005 Feb.

Conn's Current Therapy 2001. 53rd ed. WB Saunders Company; 2001.

Pain. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website. Available at: http://www.ninds.n... . Accessed October 27, 2008.

Sciatica. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons website. Available at: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00351 . Accessed October 27, 2008.

Textbook of Primary Care Medicine. 3rd ed. Mosby, Inc.; 2001.

Updated Disketomy section on 6/7/2007 according to the following study, as cited by http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/what.php : Peul WC, van Houwelingen HC, van den Hout WB, et al. Surgery versus prolonged conservative treatment for sciatica. N Engl J Med. 2007;356:2245-2256.

Weinstein JN, Tosteson TD, Lurie JD, et al. Surgical vs nonoperative treatment for lumbar disk herniation: the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT): a randomized trial. JAMA . 2006;296:2441–50.

Weinstein JN, Lurie JD, Tosteson TD, et al. Surgical vs nonoperative treatment for lumbar disk herniation: the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) observational cohort. JAMA . 2006;296:2451–9.

Zindrick MR. Tzermiadianos MN. Voronov LI. Lorenz M. Hadjipavlou A. An evidence-based medicine approach in determining factors that may affect outcome in lumbar total disc replacement. Spine . 33(11):1262-9, 2008 May 15.