Sardar N, Swarnakar R, Ghosh S, Mandal PK. Comparative effectiveness of amitriptyline vs duloxetine in the treatment of chronic low back pain: An observational study. World J Methodol 2026; 16(1): 107203 [DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v16.i1.107203]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Raktim Swarnakar, MD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cancer Insitute, Jhajjar Campus, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India. raktimswarnakar@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Rehabilitation
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
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Sardar N, Swarnakar R, Ghosh S, Mandal PK. Comparative effectiveness of amitriptyline vs duloxetine in the treatment of chronic low back pain: An observational study. World J Methodol 2026; 16(1): 107203 [DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v16.i1.107203]
Nityananda Sardar, Soumyadipta Ghosh, Pankaj Kumar Mandal, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata 700004, West Bengal, India
Raktim Swarnakar, Faculty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cancer Institute, Jhajjar Campus, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Author contributions: Sardar N, Swarnakar R, Ghosh S, and Mandal PK contributed to conception and design; Sardar N and Swarnakar R contributed to the literature search and writing; All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Institutional review board statement: Ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Ethical Committee of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (No. RKC/687), Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement- checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: All the data regarding the article are available within the manuscript. However, if further data is needed, it will be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable scientific request.
Corresponding author: Raktim Swarnakar, MD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cancer Insitute, Jhajjar Campus, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India. raktimswarnakar@hotmail.com
Received: March 19, 2025 Revised: May 15, 2025 Accepted: August 15, 2025 Published online: March 20, 2026 Processing time: 329 Days and 21.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study compared the efficacy and safety of amitriptyline and duloxetine in treating chronic low back pain. Both medications were effective in reducing pain as evidenced by statistically significant improvements in the visual analog scale at 1 week, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks. However, duloxetine demonstrated a more favorable side effect profile and better long-term sustained effects with fewer anticholinergic and sedative effects compared with amitriptyline. These findings suggest that while both drugs are viable options for chronic low back pain management, duloxetine may be preferred for patients seeking a treatment with fewer side effects. The choice of medication should be individualized based on patient-specific factors and health conditions.
