Cortisone Shots Do More Harm Than Good? Knee Injections Could Actually Make Arthritis Worse, Major Study Suggests

Study Finds ^ | June 09, 2025 | Dr. Upasana Upadhyay Bharadwaj (University of California, San Francisco)

[Theophilus]

Cold packs and even better: cold water immersion has often provided almost instant knee pain relief to me.

[normbal]

I keep gel ice packs in the freezer; use them almost daily.

Ortho says I need a new knee, didn’t want to take a chance on another post-op neurological complication. As a doctor, I get it.

The handicapped parking is nice though….

[BipolarBob]

About a year ago the insurance companies decided that was "experimental", after all it had only been used for a decade, and that it would no longer be covered.

Well, bless their hearts if they have any.

[RobertoinAL]

I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis three weeks ago. Got a shot, and now I have more swelling than before the shot.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

They don't.

[VeniVidiVici]

Your experience sounds like my knee double. Constant pain except for the week I get after a cortisone shot.

I, too, have tried turmeric, etc., for naught. For drugs all I get is Celebrex. The VA refuses to give me anything stronger.

Care to be my primary? :)

[normbal]

If it were up to me I’d deregulate ALL opioids. All other class II drugs as well.
Let adults make their own health decisions and let the bodies hit the floor.

I have a VERY small panel of patients at this time, mostly friends and family since moving to Tennessee.

I still work as a clinical consultant and supervisor for a couple dozen physician assistants but that’s about it.

I can’t tell you how many patients I prescribed opioids for while in civil service. It’s the right thing to do.

Pain, despite all the touchy-feely psych models is NOT just in our heads. Meditation doesn’t transcend dental medication. Dentists - despite 6 months of anesthesia training - are the WORST at underprescribing for pain.

DEA under the last handful of presidential regimes have put the fear of God - and 4 AM home invasion by DEA SWATZI teams - into doctors who AREN’T selling prescriptions or defrauding medicare to the point most of us leave prescribing adequate analgesia to pain specialists.

And even THEY are skittish and somehow being convinced that ordinary folks can learn to “manage” or “tolerate” pain with “alternatives.” For WAY too many people “managing” is done with overdosing or other methods of suicide, especially among former military.

I’ve had the exact same prescription for Percocet for 10 years now and the VA - after deciding my conditions were 100% disabling 5 years ago - has kept the prescription going thank God.