Hot-water bottles fail the test on back pain

They may be commonly used therapies, but there is no clinical evidence to show remedies such as hot-water bottles or icepacks ease lower back pain, an Australian-led Cochrane review shows. Mr Simon French, a research fellow at the Australasian Cochrane Centre at Monash University in Melbourne, said the review considered nine trials involving 1117 participants and examining hot and cold treatments for lower back pain. The review yielded only limited evidence supporting the use of a specific heat-wrap therapy — not available in Australia — showing it had a small effect on short-term pain relief. However, there were only three poor-quality trials assessing the effects of cold therapy, Mr French said. “People will put a hot-water bottle on their back or an icepack, but it’s all very much theory because we don’t have the evidence,” he said. Further randomised trials were needed to compare and assess the frequently used treatments, he said. Another review in the Cochrane Library’s latest update has found no causal link between women taking combined hormonal contraceptives andweight gain, based on an analysis of 44 trials. The review authors said women sometimes stopped using the contraceptives, believing they were causing them to gain weight. In trials comparing women taking different hormonal contraceptives, a similar number of women dropped out due to weight gain regardless of the type of contraceptive. Cochrane Library 2006; issue 1....