Medication alert for low back pain

Doctors have urged caution against the use of two medications widely prescribed for chronic low back pain after a systematic review of medical evidence found they carry significant risks of adverse effects without any proven benefit.

The available evidence does not support the use of gabapentin and pregabalin for treating chronic low back pain, the doctors based in Canada and India said after reviewing multiple earlier studies comparing these drugs with placebo treatment, or sham pills.

Chronic low back pain is a common health disorder with studies indicating prevalence rates of four in every 100 persons between 24 and 39 years to 20 in every 100 persons between 20 and 59 years. Doctors typically use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and analgesics to treat acute low back pain. But patients with chronic low back pain often receive prescriptions for gabapentin or pregabalin, which have been shown to be helpful in treating nerve-linked pain.

"There is no justification for gabapentin or pregabalin in chronic low back pain that doesn't involve leg pain," says Sriganesh Kamath, an associate professor of neuroanaesthesia at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, and member of the research team.

ᐧ

Comments

Registration of herbal trials in CTRI is not mandatory

A trial patient visited the site complaining breathlessness and tachycardia. The investigator advised hospitalization but as subject could not afford the expenses, he refused for admission. Is this an SAE because investigator advised hospitalization? G Praveen Kumar. If the patient was not hospitalized, it does not fall into SAE criteria of hospitalization. However, it appears from your mail that the PI felt that the event was serious enough to admit the subject for treatment. This makes it an “important medical event." As per ICH E2A such event also are considered serious. See the ICH E2A excerpt below: Medical and scientific judgement should be exercised in deciding whether expedited reporting is appropriate in other situations, such as important medical events that may not be immediately life-threatening or result in death or hospitalisation but may jeopardise the patient or may require intervention to prevent one of the other outcomes listed in the defin...

Unani medicine research institute to come up in Faridabad

A national research institute of 'Unani' medicine will be set up at a village in Faridabad district, a spokesman of Haryana government said today. The institute, which will provide healthcare facilities in the field of non-communicable diseases, would also include a 120-bedded in-patient department, the spokesman of the Ayush department said. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has approved a proposal to allot land of Kheri Gujran village for the institute. The institute would be developed as a state-of-the-art research centre with facilities for pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, drug standardisation and cultivation of medicinal plants used in 'Unani' system, the spokesman said. It would also offer facilities such as research and geriatric OPDs, speciality clinics, he said. The institute would have laboratories for bio-chemistry, pathology, radiology and USG, drug standardisation, immunology, pharmacognocy and phytochemistry, besides regimental therapy unit, library...

The polypill: Medicine's magic bullet

The capsule costs pennies, contains a simple cocktail of medicines, and halves the number of strokes and heart attacks. Doctors want to hand it out in the first mass medication for the middle-aged in Britain. So why are the big drug companies so uninterested? The magic bullet, containing five medicines in a single capsule, sharply reduced cholesterol and blood pressure levels and has the potential to "halve cardiovascular events in average middle-aged individuals", the researchers say. The finding is a major boost for a medication with huge potential against the worldwide epidemic of heart disease and stroke. Doctors say that, if further trials prove successful, all men aged over 50 and women aged over 60 should be offered the pill in what would be the first example of mass medication for the middle-aged in Britain. Yet no Western pharmaceutical company has shown interest in developing the so-called polypill because it does not promise big profits. It would sell for pennies b...

My Clinical Trials Diary

Search This Blog