Monday, February 04, 2008

And Toothpaste Won't Cure That Earache Either

Overall, the analysis concluded that there’s no evidence that prescribing antidepressants to treat back pain relieves pain or improves function. The researchers also found that in patients with low back pain, antidepressant treatment didn’t curb depression, either.
(emphasis mine; source: NYT)

This is what they call a scientific system of medicine? Nearly 25% of primary care physicians in the country are prescribing antidepressants to cure back pain and no one bats a fucking eyelid!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Depressing.

km said...

some amrutanjan for you, then?

Anonymous said...

I always thought Amrutanjan was for headaches; Iodex for backaches. No?

Tabula Rasa said...

it's a line extension. the advertising's going to go: boo hoo hah ouch.

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Perhaps the antidepressant was for depressed vertebrae.

Or perhaps the pharma company sent marketing e-mail to the wrong doctor. And didn't correct it because the consequences were good (for them). Unlike in this instance.

Rahul Siddharthan said...

On a serious note -- the common link I suppose is neurotransmitters, that antidepressants block. Many backaches are neuropathic. So it's not totally unreasonable that regulating neurotransmitters will have some effect.