Drugs 'overused' to treat chronic neck painRSS Feed

Narcotics and diagnostic testing are used too much when dealing with chronic neck pain, found researchers at Duke University and University of North Carolina (UNC).

The habit of prescribing drugs for the neck pain overlooks other, more effective treatments for neck pain, including therapeutic exercise.

Researchers analysed answers from participants of a telephone survey and found that the North Carolina participants received on average 1.6 diagnostic tests such as spinal radiographs, magnetic resonance imaging and computer tomography scans.

They also found that over 56 per cent of subjects used over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 29 per cent strong narcotics and 23 per cent weak narcotics to ease the pain in their spine.

"Rehabilitation conditioning and acupuncture studies have shown to be effective treatments that were less frequently used by patients with chronic neck pain," said Dr Goode, one of the leaders of the study.

This comes shortly after the first spinal injury patient to be treated by way of human embryonic stem cells began their treatment.

News from Serious Law, award winning spinal injury law firm

Posted by Timothy Walters
 

New laser spine institute centre opened

25 October 2010

Endoscopic spine surgery company, Laser Spine Institute, has announced that it is to open a new facility which could help those with spinal injury or disorders.The brand new centre in Oklahoma City will...

Read More...

Largest stem cell research unit in US to open next week

22 October 2010

The largest stem cell research unit in the US, which will focus on conditions such as spinal cord injury, cancer and cardio problems, is to open at Stanford University on October 27th. Five hundred and...

Read More...

Spinal injury expert new president of Canadian Royal Collage

20 October 2010

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has chosen the founder of a head and spinal injury prevention project as its new president.Dr Francescutti was the former director of the Alberta...

Read More...