Causes, Treatments For Sciatica

A viewer wants to know more about sciatica, or sciatic nerve pain. Doctor Lacy Anderson has suggestions for treatment.

Sciatica is a very common condition that causes pain that shoots down one or both of your legs. It’s usually caused by a bulging disc in the lower back that causes pressure on the sciatic nerve as it leaves the spinal cord and runs down the back of your legs.  

People report lower back pain that shoots pain down the back of the thigh and sometimes all the way into the small toe. The pain is severe and burning or “electrical” in nature. It may not hurt all the time but then hurt severely if you move in the wrong direction. Most people will have improvement in symptoms in 1-2 weeks with medication and rest.  

Doctors usually recommend anti-inflammatory medication and steroids to help with the bulging disc. Muscle relaxants can help with muscle spasms in the back for those that are having spasms. Narcotic pain medications don’t work well for nerve pain, so we usually prescribe specific medications for nerve pain, like gabapentin and pregabalin. These medications are also known under their brand names, Neurontin and Lyrica. 

Physical therapy can also help tremendously.