B vitamins and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: the efficacy of the combination for nonspecific back pain

Abstract

Back pain significantly affects quality of life in patients. Therapy for acute and chronic nonspecific back pain (NBS) includes non-drug and drug treatments. The non-drug treatment includes educational conversations with a patient, recommendations to maintain an active lifestyle, therapeutic exercises, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and mindfulness. Manual therapy and injections of anesthetics into the area of tender joints may be prescribed. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used for drug treatment of acute and chronic NBS. Antidepressants may be prescribed for chronic pain and depression symptoms. B vitamins (thiamine, pyridoxine, and cyanocobalamin) can be considered as adjuvant analgesics in NBS. The results of animal experimental studies have shown that B vitamins at high doses have analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. Clinical studies, a systematic review, and a meta-analysis published in 2020 demonstrated the safety and advantages of combination therapy with NSAIDs and B vitamins over NSAID monotherapy in the treatment of acute NBS and exacerbations of chronic NBS. The addition of B vitamins to NSAIDs can reduce the duration of treatment by 2 times. By reducing the duration of pharmacotherapy, the risk of adverse reactions to NSAIDs decreases and the patient returns to daily activities more quickly. It is advisable to conduct further, larger studies of combined pharmacotherapy for NBS.

Keywords

• backache
• nonspecific pain
• low back pain
• treatment
• pharmacotherapy
• b vitamins
• thiamine
• pyridoxine
• cyanocobalamin