A common treatment for sciatica no better
than placebo… find out what it is next.
Steroids No Better for Sciatica Pain Than
Placebo
Kathleen Doheny writing for Healthday reported
doctors often prescribe steroid pills to ease
the discomfort of sciatica.
But a new study finds steroids are no more
effective than a placebo pill for the pain
and provide only modest improvement in function.
For this study, 269 people with sciatica were
randomly assigned to take an oral steroid
(prednisone) or a placebo (a dummy medication)
for 15 days.
The participants were followed for up to a
year.
"When we compared the prednisone to placebo,
there was a modest improvement in function,"
said study researcher Dr. Harley Goldberg,
director of spine care services at Kaiser
Permanente San Jose Medical Center in California.
People reported they could go about their
daily activities somewhat better than before.
However, "when we compared the pain [between
the two groups], there was actually no difference,"
he said.
Comment: This doesn’t mean steroids shouldn’t
be considered.
It does mean that patient expectations should
be tempered.
