Antidepressant drugs ‘do little’ to help patients with back pain

ANTIDEPRESSANTS should not be prescribed for back pain or osteoarthritis as they are “largely ineffective”, a study has found.

More than 70 million prescriptions for antidepressants were dispensed in England in 2018, and they are the most commonly prescribed medicine. They alter the level of chemicals in the brain, helping to regulate mood and emotion, and can also help block pain signals.

NICE guidance says that “some antidepressants can be considered for people with chronic primary pain”. The NHS says they can be used to treat conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic back pain and chronic neck pain.

However, their effectiveness in managing chronic back pain, as well as hip and knee osteoarthritis, is minimal, according to the new study. This means that doctors should only resort to prescribing antidepressants if other avenues have been exhausted, researchers from the University of Sydney claim.

The researchers studied data from 33 trials across the world involving 5,318 participants. They concluded that while antidepressants did reduce back pain after three months, the effect was small and unlikely to be very noticeable.

The medication worked slightly better on osteoarthritis sufferers in the same time period, the study also found.

Prof Martin Underwood, from the University of Warwick, said of the findings: “Drug treatments are largely ineffective for back pain and osteoarthritis and have the potential for serious harm.

“We need to work harder to help people with these disorders to live better with their pain without recourse to the prescription pad.”

Side effects from antidepressants can include nausea, weight gain, loss of sex drive, tiredness and insomnia.