Study finds little benefit, some harm from steroid shots for back pain

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Study finds little benefit, some harm from steroid shots for back pain

By Gene Emery NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steroid injections widely used to treat back pain offer little or no real benefit, according to a new study of 400 patients. Those who received the drug mixed with the painkiller lidocaine scored no better on measures of disability and leg pain after six weeks than patients in a control group who received lidocaine injection alone. "These (injections) are so commonly used and the steroids do pose an added risk to patients without much benefit," the study’s lead author Dr. Janna Friedly of the University of Washington in Seattle told Reuters Health. "I do hope patients and their doctors will be more cautious about using them” for spinal stenosis, she said.

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