Praktické lekárnictvo 4/2018

Back pain – options for pharmacological intervention

Back pain is one of the most frequent reasons to seek medical help, either as outpatient care or through pharmacies. In most cases, the reason is a non-specific simple back pain. The treatment of the back pain is complex and includes systemic and local pharmacotherapy, education about motion and invasive procedures. Within the systemic pharmacotherapy, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are preferred, since apart from their analgesic effects they are anti-inflammatory. However, this treatment is limited by severe gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects. That is why it is important to take care about choosing safe drugs and consider the necessity to use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the shortest possible period of time and in the lowest possible dosage. This can be achieved by an appropriate therapy by other analgesics and adjuvant therapy.

Keywords: back pain, analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, adjuvants