Harms and benefits of opioids for management of non-surgical acute and chronic low back pain: a systematic review.

CONCLUSION: This review identified trends of higher harms rates and higher percentages of severe harms in opioid arms for the management of subacute and chronic LBP. The majority of trials that demonstrated benefits with opioids also had potential conflicts of interest. Lastly, non-opioid medications demonstrated statistically significant pain improvement compared with opioids. We feel that the results of the trial are supportive of current LBP guidelines and do not condone the initial use of opioids in management of subacute or chronic LBP. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017070914. PMID: 30902816 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine - Category: Sports Medicine Authors: Tags: Br J Sports Med Source Type: research