HBNS: Herbals Effective for Low-Back Pain in the Short Term, Studies Find
The herbal preparations devil's claw, white willow bark and cayenne plasters may be as effective as pain medication for short-term low back pain and are better than placebo, a new systematic review of studies has found.
The review comprised 10 randomized controlled trials involving nearly 1,600 adults who had acute, sub-acute or chronic low back pain.
Led by Dr. Joel J. Gagnier of the Provincial Medical Centre in Windsor, Canada, the review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
The authors looked at randomized controlled trials of the three herbals that involved nearly 1,600 adults with acute, sub-acute or chronic low back pain. The studies pitted devil's claw (Harpago procumbens), white willow bark (Salix alba) and cayenne (Capsicum frutescens) against sham pills and against Vioxx, the painkiller since removed from the market amid concerns over its long-term safety.
“The results of these 10 trials suggest that specific herbal medicines may be effective for short-term (four to six weeks) improvement in pain and functional status for individuals with acute episodes of chronic non-specific low-back pain,� the authors concluded. "These herbal medicines could be considered as treatment options for acute episodes of chronic low back pain," they said.
Posted by gruwell at April 18, 2006 9:35 PM | TrackBack