Annals of the rheumatic diseases
-
To assess the efficacy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for low back pain. ⋯ There are flaws in the design of most studies. The pooled odds ratio must be interpreted with caution because the trials at issue, including the high quality trials, did not use identical outcome measures. The results of the 26 randomised trials that have been carried out to date, suggest that NSAIDs might be effective for short-term symptomatic relief in patients with uncomplicated low back pain, but are less effective or ineffective in patients with low back pain with sciatica and patients with sciatica with nerve root symptoms.
-
To investigate the relation between measures of pain threshold and symptoms of distress to determine if fibromyalgia is a discrete construct/ disorder in the clinic. ⋯ Tender points are linearly related to fibromyalgia variables and distress, and there is no discrete enhancement or perturbation of fibromyalgia or distress variables associated with very high levels of tender points. Although fibromyalgia is a recognisable clinical entity, there seems to be no rationale for treating fibromyalgia as a discrete disorder, and it would seem appropriate to consider the entire range of tenderness and distress in clinic patients as well as in research studies. The tender point count functions as a 'sedimentation rate' for distress, and is a better measure than the dolorimetry score.