Medical treatments for back pain…

Anti-inflammatory drugs (more commonly known as nonspecific
anti-inflammatory drugs) can sometimes be useful for reducing
the pain in your back, and also bringing down any associated
inflammation. However, like all pharmaceutical drugs, even NSAIDs can
have side-effects such as an increased risk of gastro-intestinal bleeding.
Thus, they are not ideal for everyone who suffers from a back pain
problem, and they should be taken for as short a period of time as
possible.

In addition, there are narcotic pain killers that will reduce the pain
symptoms, but they can also be used only for a limited period of time
with any degree of safety. Drug based muscle relaxants might also be
prescribed by your medical attendant if the primary cause of your back
pain problems is muscle spasms. In this case, however, muscle
relaxants (such as Valium) are likely to make you drowsy, so once
again, great care has to be applied if you intend to take such drugs.

If you are suffering from inflammation around the spinal nerves, your
medical practitioner may recommend an epidural steroid injection that
will reduce both the pain and the inflammation around the nerves at the
same time. Steroids are another pharmaceutical drug that you should
only take for a limited period of time, and most people who have had an
epidural will tell you that it is no walk in the park!
The final solution is spinal surgery, but this actually only happens in a
small number of cases. Spinal surgery only becomes necessary after
trying all other treatments without success, hence it is most commonly
used as a treatment of last resort.

Spinal surgery is only really effective for a limited number of conditions
listed in the previous section such as spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis
or to remove a ruptured disc should that become necessary (which is
unusual).
Most physicians will only consider surgery when they believe that the
risk of not undertaking surgery is greater than the risk of doing so. For
example, if after a considerable period of non-invasive treatment, a
slipped or ruptured disc is not getting any better, it can quite easily
start to get worse. In this situation, it is possible that spinal surgery will
be considered.
Chronic back pain.