Steroid for Sciatica Pain: Effective or Not? People with sciatica — a searing pain that shoots from the lower back straight down the leg — are a notoriously difficult-to-treat bunch. For one, sciatica is a symptom of a medical problem — not a medical condition on its own.

Brought on by an injury to or pressure on the sciatic nerve — the nerve that controls the muscles in the back of the knee and the lower leg and provides sensation to the back of the thigh, part of the lower leg and the foot’s sole — it can be caused by a number of things. Tumors, pelvic fracture or injury, or piriformis syndrome — a pain disorder involving the narrow muscle in the buttocks — are among the conditions that can cause sciatica. Often, pain is caused by the protrusion of vertebral disk substance pressing on the roots of the sciatic nerve. [Related: Stem Cell for Osteo-Arthritis]

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FDA panel says yes to resuming osteoarthritis pain drug trials: The advisory panel to the federal agency recommends allowing drugmakers to continue tests for promising anti-nerve growth factor drugs, even if these have been linked to bone decay in previous trials.

A new class of drugs called anti-nerve growth factor (anti-NGF) drugs work precisely as their name implies — by blocking proteins called nerve growth factors that are associated with nerve pain. These new medications have the potential to become the first biotechnology drugs that specifically target pain.

The new medications are potentially breakthrough drugs for the treatment of osteoarthritis, cancer pain, lower back pain, thermal burn injury, vertebral fracture, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, endometriosis, chronic pancreatitis, interstitial cystitis — and other chronic pain conditions.

Continue reading Tanezumab, Tulranumab Trials Approved by FDA →

Cymbalta Side Effects. Cymbalta (duloxetine hydrochloride), a drug used to treat depressive disorder, can also be used to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain including discomfort from osteoarthritis and chronic lower back pain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the drug following clinical trials which proved its effectiveness against chronic pain.

Says Janet Woodcock (MD) director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research: “Up to three quarters of the population experience chronic pain at some time in their lives. This approval means that many of those people now have another treatment option.”

More from the FDA news release:
More than 29,000 patients have used Cymbalta in clinical trials, and more than 600 patients were studied in the clinical trials involving osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain.

Continue reading Cymbalta Side Effects – Common and Serious – Chronic Pain →