A common medication prescription given for back pain is for muscle relaxants.  Muscle relaxants work well when your muscles are so tense they cause back pain.  What I didn’t realize is that science doesn’t know for sure how muscle relaxants work on the muscles.  They just know they can calm your nerves and make your brain send nice messages to your muscles instead of tense messages.

The problem with muscle relaxants is they can be addicting if you take them too long.  In essence they make you feel good and who doesn’t like feeling good?  If your back pain has been due to tense muscles causing muscle spasms, the muscle relaxants can help you learn to relax long enough for the muscles to calm down.  But you shouldn’t take this medication for longer than 2 or 3 weeks.  They don’t “cure” anything and you should learn to relax without drugs.  Muscle relaxants are just a way to get some temporary relief.

If you have a muscle or back inflammation, it’s common for doctors to prescribe anti-inflammatories.  Of course, you don’t have to go to the doctor to get them, because common aspirin is one.  You can also take Aleve, Motrin or Advil and get some inflammation relief.  For these drugs to work you have to take them regularly to build up the drug in your system so it works regularly.  You shouldn’t start and stop anti-inflammatory drugs until the inflammation is reduced.

Though there are over the counter anti-inflammatory medicines, the doctor may decide to prescribe more powerful prescription drugs.  They are used in almost every kind of situation causing back pain.  You have to be careful about the dosage you take because they do have side effects.  For one thing they cause a decline in your blood clotting abilities.  If you use them for an extended period of time, be sure to have the doctor check regularly for kidney or liver problems.