Read up on Back pain treatment options at Consumer Reports Health.

Back pain

Key points about treatments

Although it may be difficult for your doctor to tell exactly what is causing your back pain, there is a whole range of treatments that can help ease your pain and keep you moving. Your doctor may offer you a combination of the treatments.

We've divided the treatments into those for back pain that lasts for 12 weeks or less (acute or short-term back pain) and pain that goes on for longer than 12 weeks (chronic or long-term back pain).

Key points about treating back pain

Doctors usually advise people with back pain to stay as active as possible. Resting in bed can actually make your pain worse.
Exercise can help people with long-term back pain. It's not clear whether it helps in the short term. It might be that it takes a while for exercises to improve the strength of your back.
Painkillers can help reduce back pain. Your doctor may recommend acetaminophen (Tylenol), or painkillers that also help reduce inflammation, like ibuprofen (Advil).
Drugs that relax your muscles may also help with back pain. Unfortunately, they can cause unpleasant side effects like drowsiness or dizziness, and you can only take them for a short time.
Having your spine manipulated by a trained therapist may help in the short term, but we don't know whether it helps with long-term back pain. There are also some rare but serious side effects to manipulation. There's a small chance this treatment could damage nerves or blood vessels in your spine.

This information was last updated on Nov 10, 2009

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment.
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