Investigating the effect of methylprednisolone pulse on the treatment of back pain

Abstract

"Background: Pain is a common problem afflicting humanity. Back pain is a musculoskeletal disorder with a high prevalence; this pain may occur to anyone at least once during their lifetime. Aim: the present study was performed to investigate the effect of the use of methylprednisolone pulse on the pain status of patients suffering from back pain in Ilam city. Methods: This study is a clinical trial conducted as double-blind in 2021 in Ilam city with pretest and post-test groups plus a control group. The patients referred with vertebral disc herniation diagnosis suffering from diffuse pain in the right leg were assigned into test and control groups. A methylprednisolone 500 mg IV would be administered to the patient as pulse inside DW 500cc serum. The extent of pain was compared before and after the intervention at one, two, three, and seven days later. Placebo was applied for the control group patients. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 as well as based on descriptive and analytical tests. Results: According to the findings, no statistically significant difference was observed between the demographic characteristics of patients receiving methylprednisolone and patients in the control group (p 0.05). Also, the result showed the comparison of pain scores of patients in the two groups. According to the findings, the M (SD) pain score in the experimental group was 6.59 (0.88) before the intervention and 1.76 (0.69) in the week after the intervention, which was statistically significant (P=0.000). Also, the changes in the control group's score before intervention were 6.82 (0.71) and after the intervention was 6.77 (1.12) (P>0.05). Conclusions: Considering the effect of methylprednisolone on mitigating the pain of patients suffering from back pain, it is suggested to use injective methylprednisolone for reducing the pain of patients suffering from back pain "