Pain Medications

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]