Only around one in 10 common non-surgical and non-invasive treatments for lower back pain are effective, suggests a pooled data analysis. And the pain relief they offer is only marginally better than that achieved with a placebo. Low back pain is common and debilitating, and 80–90% of it is categorized as non-specific, because there's no immediately identifiable cause. A total of 301 trials investigating 56 different treatments or treatment combinations were included in the pooled data analysis. The most common interventions were NSAIDs (27 trials), opioids (26 trials), laser and light therapy (25), acupuncture (24), and gentle manual therapy (mobilization;...