THE PILLS DON’T EVEN WORK IN MANY CASES

DRUGS such as pregabalin and gabapentin are increasingly prescribed for pain, but only very small numbers of people actually respond to them, says Dr Cathy Stannard, a consultant in pain management who helped draw up the guidance on their use in 2014. ‘It’s about two in ten in clinical trials and probably a lot less than that in real life.

‘ For small numbers of people, the effects can be life-changing; the problem is that lots of people get stuck on them, even if they don’t work for their pain, and they are not followed up and monitored.’

‘Even when they do work to begin with, there is no drug that works very well for longterm pain,’ she adds.

‘Exercise-based therapies or interventions, such as water- based exercise programmes to build fitness, have more benefits than most medical treatments for long-term pain.

‘If I held the purse strings, I’d spend the money we saved from taking people off drugs that don’t work for pain on these sorts of treatments.’