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Therapeutics/Prevention
Randomised controlled trial
Up to 4000 mg of paracetamol a day is ineffective for acute low back pain
  1. Andrew Moore
  1. Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to : Dr Andrew Moore, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, The Churchill, Oxford OX3 7LE, UK; andrew.moore{at}ndcn.ox.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebmed-2014-110157

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    Commentary on: Williams CM, Maher CG, Latimer J, et al. Efficacy of paracetamol for acute low-back pain: a double-blind, randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2014;384:1586–96OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science.

    Context

    Back pain affected 9% in a global prevalence study1 and acute low back pain had an incidence of 38/1000 person-years in a large US armed forces survey.2 It is a common reason for seeing a general practitioner. Paracetamol taken regularly is advised as the first drug treatment option by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

    Methods

    This large (N=1650) randomised, double-blind, double-dummy clinical trial tested paracetamol in acute low back pain.3 Regular paracetamol (3 times per day, 3990 mg) and as-needed …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.