Common drugs often prescribed to treat fibromyalgia pain do not work, says review

Oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used in the treatment of pain in fibromyalgia, despite being considered not to be effective.

A group of experts analysed six studies that looked at the pain relieving qualities, tolerability and safety of oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for fibromyalgia in 292 adults, and published their findings in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The types of NSAID under scrutiny were etoricoxib, ibuprofen, naproxen and tenoxicam.

“There is only a modest amount of very low-quality evidence about the use of NSAIDs in fibromyalgia, and that comes from small, largely inadequate studies with potential risk of bias,” the experts conclude. “That bias would normally be to increase the apparent benefits of NSAIDs, but no such benefits were seen. Consequently, NSAIDs cannot be regarded as useful for treating fibromyalgia.”

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