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CMAJ

Anticonvulsants in the treatment of low back pain and lumbar radicular pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Overview of attention for article published in Canadian Medical Association Journal, July 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
17 news outlets
blogs
9 blogs
policy
2 policy sources
twitter
584 X users
facebook
15 Facebook pages
wikipedia
16 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user

Citations

dimensions_citation
135 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
211 Mendeley
citeulike
1 CiteULike
Title
Anticonvulsants in the treatment of low back pain and lumbar radicular pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in
Canadian Medical Association Journal, July 2018
DOI 10.1503/cmaj.171333
Pubmed ID
Authors

Oliver Enke, Heather A New, Charles H New, Stephanie Mathieson, Andrew J McLachlan, Jane Latimer, Christopher G Maher, C-W Christine Lin

Abstract

The use of anticonvulsants (e.g., gabapentin, pregabalin) to treat low back pain has increased substantially in recent years despite limited supporting evidence. We aimed to determine the efficacy and tolerability of anticonvulsants in the treatment of low back pain and lumbar radicular pain compared with placebo. A search was conducted in 5 databases for studies comparing an anticonvulsant to placebo in patients with nonspecific low back pain, sciatica or neurogenic claudication of any duration. The outcomes were self-reported pain, disability and adverse events. Risk of bias was assessed using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale, and quality of evidence was assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Data were pooled and treatment effects were quantified using mean differences for continuous and risk ratios for dichotomous outcomes. Nine trials compared topiramate, gabapentin or pregabalin to placebo in 859 unique participants. Fourteen of 15 comparisons found anticonvulsants were not effective to reduce pain or disability in low back pain or lumbar radicular pain; for example, there was high-quality evidence of no effect of gabapentinoids versus placebo on chronic low back pain in the short term (pooled mean difference [MD] -0.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.8 to 0.7) or for lumbar radicular pain in the immediate term (pooled MD -0.1, 95% CI -0.7 to 0.5). The lack of efficacy is accompanied by increased risk of adverse events from use of gabapentinoids, for which the level of evidence is high. There is moderate- to high-quality evidence that anticonvulsants are ineffective for treatment of low back pain or lumbar radicular pain. There is high-quality evidence that gabapentinoids have a higher risk for adverse events. PROSPERO-CRD42016046363.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 584 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 211 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 211 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 34 16%
Student > Master 26 12%
Other 22 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 9%
Student > Bachelor 20 9%
Other 40 19%
Unknown 49 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 76 36%
Nursing and Health Professions 27 13%
Neuroscience 11 5%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 6 3%
Psychology 6 3%
Other 24 11%
Unknown 61 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 566. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 February 2024.
All research outputs
#42,115
of 25,477,125 outputs
Outputs from Canadian Medical Association Journal
#73
of 9,472 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#863
of 341,783 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Canadian Medical Association Journal
#3
of 119 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,477,125 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 9,472 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 34.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 341,783 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 119 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.