Some medications, including some antidepressants, can help alleviate back pain, as well as other problems. However, taking an antidepressant as a form of back pain treatment does not necessarily mean the condition is still in your head. In fact, the SNRI serotonin selective drug (Citalopram) can ease a bit of the suffering, by helping to regulate serotonin levels in your brain. Other antidepressants can help you to reduce back pain by reducing the amount of norepinephrine in your system, while some work by acting on neuroendorphins in your brain.
Some over-the-counter medicines (OTC) such as acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, and ibuprofen, are used as forms of back pain treatment, as well. Although they do not have the power to completely cure back pain, these kinds of drugs do many things to help ease your symptoms, such as getting rid of pain receptors in your brain that give you feelings of pain. They can also make your muscles relax more easily, letting you move more easily, and relieve the stiffness of stiff muscles. You should know that these types of drugs are not usually approved by the FDA, unless they are in a generic form.
Steroid injections are a commonly used form of back pain treatment, since they have been approved by the FDA for this purpose. These injections are used for people with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, since steroid treatments are known to have anti-inflammatory properties. If you have already been taking steroid injections, or have recently started taking them, talk to your doctor about the risks involved in trying to increase the amount of steroids in your body. Steroid injections can cause an increased risk of infection, and can slow the healing process, making it possible for you to be injured again, or even experience permanent nerve damage. In many cases, it is best to just wait out the pain rather than resort to injections, since they can have severe side effects on your body.