Sciatica pain relief medication differs for each patient. Patients need to see a doctor in order to determine what specific type of sciatica they have. Never take drugs prescribed for another person – even if that person has sciatica. These drugs could be too powerful for the type of sciatica one suffers from and may cause potentially dangerous side effects.
NSAIDs
The good news in sciatica pain relief medication is that often inexpensive, over the counter painkillers can help drastically reduce pain in just a month. These painkillers are called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). They include:
But if pain does not decrease after one month, then NSAIDs may be reduced or abandoned in order to try other sciatica pain relief medications.
Narcotics
Opioids and opiates are powerful painkillers, but doctors do not like prescribing them because the chance for addiction is very high. Narcotics can help for short-term use in cases of extreme pain. These include:
Opioids are prescribed rarely for chronic cases of sciatica and only after more conventional treatments like physical therapy and NSAIDs are ineffective. Not all patients on opioids become addicted. Some people do not like the “stoned” effect that opioids can give and so will use as little of the drug as possible to avoid getting stoned. Senior citizens may be more likely to be prescribed opioiods than younger people – as long as the patient does not have a past history of drug or alcohol abuse.
Epidural Steroid Injections
These injections are even more aggressive form of sciatica pain management than narcotics. They must be done in a doctor’s office and cannot be self-administered. Patients lay on their stomachs while a doctor first locates which nerves are causing the most pain. After locating the nerve, the doctor injects steroids into the outer covering of the spine close to the nerve. This helps “numb” the nerve, although the nerve is not switched off or damaged. Injections need to be repeated every one or two months for the rest of the patient’s life.
These drugs are technically not painkillers, but deaden pain by helping the overall body relax – often to the point of drifting into unconsciousness. Muscle relaxants are highly addictive because the body builds up a tolerance to them. Over time, the body needs more and more of the muscle relaxant in order to get the same pain relief. These drugs include:
Tricyclic Antidepressants
Tricyclic antidepressants are only one of three types of antidepressants and do not include popular drugs like fluoxetine (Prozac.) These drugs include:
Using tricyclic antidepressants as sciatica pain relief medication is a controversial subject, but they have helped some patients, especially those with very low appetites. This is an off-label use of antidepressants, so general practitioners may be reluctant to prescribe them, but pain specialists can prescribe them, unless a person is already on an antidepressant or a medication that clashes with antidepressants.
References
University of Maryland Medical Center. “Back Pain and Sciatica: Medications.
Mayo Clinic. Sciatica: Treatments and Drugs.”
Author’s mother suffers from sciatica
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