Acute low back pain (LBP) is a common cause of disability. An analysis in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research examined which non-opioid drugs are best for treating this condition.

The analysis, which included all randomized controlled trials published to date (18 studies with 3,478 patients), showed that muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) could effectively and rapidly reduce symptoms.

Takeaways: 

Wang et al., in a JAMA Network Research Letter, recently reviewed Medicaid expenditures on adalimumab (ADA), sold under the brand name HUMIRA®. They noted that the introduction of the citrate-free formulation cost an extra $4.4B to Medicaid between 2014 and 2021.

The etiology of arthritis was studied using US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data and suggested that elevated concentrations of trace elements (TE: Pb, Cd, and Cu) were associated with increased risk of arthritis.

TE concentrations for whole blood [cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), selenium (Se), manganese (Mn)], serum [copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn)] were measured in NHANES adults.