Paracetamol Fares Poorly In Relieving Backache, Finds Study
Researchers are set to announce ton Thursday that the drug paracetamol is no better than a placebo at speeding recovery from acute episodes of lower back pain. Their report will be published in 'The Lancet' medical journal.
The Paracetamol for LowBack Pain Study is the first large randomized trial to compare the effectiveness of paracetamol with placebo for low-back pain and questions the universal endorsement of the drug as the firstchoice painkiller for low-back pain. The study randomly assigned 1,652 individuals (average age 45 years) with acute low-back pain from 235 primary care centres in Sydney to receive up to four weeks of paracetamol in regular doses (three times a day; equivalent to 3,990 mg per day), paracetamol as needed (maximum 4,000 mg per day) or placebo.
All participants were followed-up for three months.
No differences in the number of days to recovery were found between the treatment groups - median time to recovery was 17 days in the regular paracetamol group, 17 days in the as-needed paracetamol group and 16 days in the placebo group. Paracetamol also had no effect on short-term pain levels, disability, function, sleep quality or quality of life.
The number of participants reporting adverse events was similar between the groups.
"Simple analgesics such as paracetamol might not be of primary importance in the management of acute lower back pain," said lead author Dr Christopher Williams from the George Institute for Global Health at the University of Sydney.
"The results suggest we need to reconsider the universal recommendation to provide paracetamol as a first-line treatment for low-back pain, although understanding why paracetamol works for other pain states but not lowback pain would help direct future treatments." Lower back pain has been found to be the leading cause of years lived with disability globally. National clinical guidelines universally recommend paracetamol as the first-choice analgesic for acute low-back pain, despite the fact that no previous studies have provided robust evidence that it is effective in people with the pain.
