Breaking the myth: opioids provide no advantage for acute back pain, study finds TheLancet opiods placebo painrelief backpain
By Neha MathurJul 3 2023Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM In a recent study published in The Lancet, researchers performed a randomized controlled trial in 157 primary care and emergency department sites across Australia.Study: Randomized trial reveals opioids relieve acute back pain no better than placebo. Image Credit: fizkes/Shutterstock.com
About the study In the present placebo-controlled trial of opioids in acute low back and neck pain, Caitlin Jones et al. recruited patients who had lower back or neck pain of mild-to-moderate severity but remained pain-free for at least the last one month, i.e., before their current episode of spinal pain.
First, two to four weeks of opioid therapy did not improve physical function, quality of life, time to recovery, or work absenteeism for patients with acute back and neck pain. This trial fetched consistent results in sensitivity and subgroup analyses though data for 25% of participants were missing. Also, its blinding was largely successful.
Studies have also reported that low back pain transforms over a year into nociceptive pain, defined by altered nociceptive processing. Thus, people with nociplastic pain syndromes, including those with chronic lower back pain, also respond poorly to opioid therapy.
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