Upper Back Pain

Back pain comes in many forms. Lower back pain, which you feel anywhere from your hips to your rib cage, has its own causes and treatments. The same is true for middle back pain, which appears between the bottom of your rib cage up to your shoulder blades. Upper back pain can affect the area just below your arms up to your neck. Pain in the upper back may feel like:

Neck pain
Shoulder pain
A pulled-back muscle

To get lasting upper back pain relief, see our doctor. Only by reviewing your symptoms, taking a medical history, and doing some tests can a qualified pain specialist determine the cause of your pain. Treatment for upper back pain depends on getting an accurate diagnosis.

Painful Symptoms: Upper Right or Left Back Pain

You can feel upper left back pain or upper right back pain. The pain may also feel like it’s coming directly from your spine, in the center of your back. Pain in the upper back can feel like a:

Dull, aching pain that gets worse over time
Burning pain that’s worse after certain activities
Sharp pain that comes and goes
Tight muscle feeling that limits your flexibility
Stiffness in your back that hurts when you move

Depending on the type of injury or >illness, other symptoms may appear as well. Remember that your spine protects your spinal cord, the central nerves that reach every part of your body. If a nerve leaving your spine is compressed or otherwise compromised, you may feel pain even in your extremities.

Symptoms include:

Muscle weakness in your arms and hands
Tingling in your arms all the way down to the tips of your fingers
A feeling of numbness in your chest or shoulder
Pain or numbness in your abdomen
A stiff neck

What Causes Pain in the Upper Back

Your spine is composed of vertebral bones that are somewhat shaped like a ring. In the center, your spinal cord runs from the base of your spine up to your brain stem. Between each vertebral bone are discs, which act as shock absorbers. Each disc has a thick outer shell and a soft inner core that can bounce, stretch and move as you move. The discs keep your vertebrae from rubbing against each other.

The discs also keep your vertebrae spaced correctly because, between each bone, nerves run from the central spinal cord out to every part of your body. If these spaces collapse, the nerves are impacted and respond to pain. Causes include:

An accident that causes a fracture
A pulled muscle
A muscle sprain
A muscle spasm
Poor posture, pulling your spine out of alignment over time
A herniated disc
Arthritis that leads to facet joint syndrome
Myofascial pain syndrome

Upper Back Pain Treatment

Treatment for upper back pain — whether for upper right back pain or upper left back pain — hinges on a correct diagnosis. Still, it’s rare that your doctor needs to resort to surgery to provide upper back pain relief. In fact, your upper back pain treatment may begin with over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin or ibuprofen, or prescription-strength muscle relaxants.

Your sports medicine doctor may also recommend an at-home upper back pain treatment consisting of alternating heat and cold compresses. Certain stretches and exercises can help your muscles relax enough to ease your pain, too. And there’s always physical therapy, massage, and similar mobilization techniques that correct the imbalance between your muscles, ligaments, cartilage, and bones.

Medicines can also help with your back pain. The most common prescription drugs that are used to treat upper left back pain are:

Pain relievers most often used for back pain are:

Codeine
Fentanyl — available as a patch
Hydrocodone
Hydromorphone
Morphine
Oxycodone
Tramadol

Possible side effects of these drugs include:

Drowsiness
Impaired judgment
Nausea or vomiting
Constipation
Itching
Slowed breathing
Addiction

Muscle relaxants most often used for back pain are:

Carisoprodol
Cyclobenzaprine
Diazepam
Methocarbamol

Antidepressants most often used for back pain are:

Amitriptyline
Desipramine
Duloxetine
Imipramine
Nortriptyline

Advanced Treatment for Upper Back Pain

In severe cases — confirmed with x-rays, CT scans, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests — your physician offers more invasive, but targeted upper back pain treatments. These treatments involve injecting pain medicine directly where it’s needed most. For example:

Thoracic epidural injection
Spine facet injection
Trigger point injection

These injections use a corticosteroid medication combined with a local anesthetic to kill the pain. The effect of these treatments is temporary, although they generally help ease pain for up to several months. You shouldn’t rely on injections for long-term upper back pain relief. Instead, exercise and physical therapy can keep the pain away for much longer.

Febin Melepura, MD is a top rated, best in class interventional pain management doctor. He is a nationally recognized pain relief specialist and is among the top pain care doctors in New York City and the country. He is an award winning expert and contributor to a prominent media outlets.

Dr. Febin Melepura has been recognized for his thoughtful, thorough, modern approach to treating chronic pain and, among other accolades, has been named a “top pain management doctor in New York”, and one of “America’s Top Doctors™” for an advanced sports injury treatments.