Sciatica drugs are the most popular and common form of symptomatic treatment for back and leg pain syndromes. Drugs are prescribed or recommended to ease the agony of the condition, yet provide no hope for enacting a cure. The pharmaceutical industry is the biggest beneficiary of the billions of dollars spent on back pain care every year.
This vital article topic must be read and understood by every patient who is using or considering using any type of pharmaceutical sciatica treatment. This essay will cover the potential benefits of sciatica drug therapies, but will focus primarily on the shortcomings, including the many health risks of prescription drugs.
What are Sciatica Drugs?
Drugs for the treatment of sciatic nerve pain consist of several varieties. The most common are pain relievers. These powerful pills will deaden all but the worst sciatica symptoms, although this relief often comes at a high price. All these medicines are poisonous to your body and have a range of known and unknown negative side effects. Additionally, most forms of pain meds demonstrate a moderate risk for chemical dependency. Becoming a drug addict while searching for sciatica relief is not what most patients had in mind.
Other forms of drugs used to combat sciatica are anti-inflammatory agents and muscle relaxants. In 99% of sciatica patients, there simply is no inflammation at all, so I never did understand the purpose of the former category, while muscle relaxants are typically given when there are significant muscular sciatica spasms.
Problems with Drug Therapy
Besides the previously stated health concerns associated with pharmaceutical treatment of sciatica, there are other major negative issues.
Drugs might relieve symptoms, but do not help to resolve the underlying source of pain. Therefore, many patients will continue to suffer year in and year out, without ever finding a glimmer of hope for a cure. This type of treatment can become expensive for those patients who do not receive full health insurance coverage and can even lead to a downward spiral of illicit drug use.
Some doctors love to treat with pills, since it makes their jobs so much easier and more profitable: “Here, take 2 of these every day and call me when you need more. That will be $300 please.”
I wish I could make that kind of money for such easy work. Add on the substantial financial incentives paid directly to doctors from the big pharmaceutical companies and you have the perfect get-rich scheme. Too bad a few patients might die in the process. Oh well, I guess these doctors view those lost lives as collateral damage.
Critique of Sciatica Drugs
Pharmaceutical treatment is fine for patients who are in extreme pain and have no other options. It is also fine for the temporary control of discomfort, while a patient searches for a true cure. However, this form of treatment is rarely limited to these scenarios. More commonly, a patient is given drug after drug and led blindly towards their own self destruction. Long-term drug use is almost always harmful and should be avoided in all but the most dire of circumstances.
I was prescribed various drugs during the times when I had severe back pain. I was given almost everything from Flexeril to Vicodin, Percocet to Naprosyn, Codeine to Demerol. I tried some of them early on and realized that this form of treatment was just not right for me. I hated the way my body felt being influenced by some foreign substance and I also never experienced any real relief from any of these medications. After a short time, I told all my doctors to save their prescriptions for another patient.
Do not get stuck in the pharmaceutical trap. Once you start using these drugs, it might be difficult or even impossible to stop. Slavery is no way to live; pain or not. There are better ways of finding sciatica pain relief using holistic methods, such as acupuncture.
I highly recommend talking to your doctor about eliminating drugs from your treatment program. There are other less damaging options for many patients. TENS, massage and even injection therapies might be better advised. If your doctor does not want to listen and seems resolute about keeping you on the pills without your consent, then maybe, it is time to find a new doctor.
My book, The Pharmaceutical Trap, provides thought-provoking research opportunities on the downsides on drug therapies, as well as excellent alternatives that are safe and effective. You can find it as part of our Cure Back Pain Forever program offerings on the product page.
