Brief Answer:
or presumably not other narcotics.

Detailed Answer:
so.. tramadol is a mild narcotic. It is habit forming but the withdrawal is not to the same degree and it is longer lasting. With susceptible people, or with overdose, it can lead to truly dangerous seizures, but not in the vast majority taking it in the regular doses. It is, potentially, habit forming.
Physical therapy is probably the best option in terms of having more function. Part of it is getting used to having pain.
Muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories help pain....... but if there is a true lumbar disk disease, they are not very effective at all.
Last, is buprenorphine wiht/without a second drug to block other narcotics. This is a long acting narcotic that is every bit as habit forming as codeine, and ... compared to most codeine doses, about the same or somewhat higher strength as a narcotic and longer lasting. It might not be what you want on this due to being not that much safer, less addicting, less trouble than codeine. It's about the same.
Then there is full on methadone program. This is a much higher dose of narcotic and is not generally used for pain control but only for damage-control in the already opiate addicted. Its safety is lower compared to other narcotics and requires a very close watch on it's use. Don't think that is a good idea.
Surgery might be helpful in a few carefully selected people but generally it is NOT very helpful for pain control.

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Brief Answer:
not quite sure what you mean...

Detailed Answer:
"I HAVE HAD KNEE SURGERY AND WAS GIVEN LARGE DOSES OF CODEINE WHICH I BECAME ADDICTED TO. I HAVE A BACK PROMBLEM AND AS I AM ALMOST OFF THE CODEINE I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT WOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR MY BACK OTHER THAN A MORPHINE BASE DRUG"
do you see the word anti-inflammatory in that ? codeine isn't one. Was there perhaps another question to another doctor? I would be more than happy to answer it, but the only question I had directed to me, I am quoting in its entirety and it is entirely without mention of anti-inflammatory/NSAID/prostaglandin inhibitor/willowbark extract/etc.

Never the less, I did, actually, mention them.

"Muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories help pain....... but if there is a true lumbar disk disease, they are not very effective at all. "
I believe covered it.

To reiterate:
narcotics
Full agonist.
You seem to be rejecting narcotics. This is a broad category. Long acting full potency narcotics like long acting morphine are often problems with addiction. Codeine is not the most potent, but is fully potent. It and other short acting fully active ones are most likely to cause addiction. You are stating that is a problem.
Methadone
One option in the context of on-going addiction is to put someone on a fully active narcotic but with very very close monitoring (methadone maintenence).


There are low effect narcotics
Tramadol.
tramadol is a mild narcotic. It is habit forming but the withdrawal is not to the same degree and it is longer lasting. With susceptible people, or with overdose, it can lead to truly dangerous seizures, but not in the vast majority taking it in the regular doses. It is, potentially, habit forming.

There are narcotics which are not fully potent.
They bind the opiate receptor but do not fully turn it on. They can be used to control pain. They also block the action of stronger and more dangerous narcotics. They are considered less addicting but are not free of addiction and withdrawal.
buprenorphine wiht/without a second drug to block other narcotics. This is a long acting narcotic that is every bit as habit forming as codeine, and ... compared to most codeine doses, about the same or somewhat higher strength as a narcotic and longer lasting. It might not be what you want on this due to being not that much safer, less addicting, less trouble than codeine. It's about the same.

Other medications for pain.
Nonsteroidals as previously mentioned
Muscle relaxers as previously mentioned
Nerve dampers. These are particularly helpful in the context of nerve irritation pain such as in shingles, or nerve trauma or phantom limb pain. They are not very effective in lumbar disk. This category includes gabapentin, pregabalin (no relation?!), and older anti-depressants such as amitryptiline, and lidocaine in some situations.
Nerve damaging agents (problematic, obviously) cathepsin, botox, menthol, surgery.

Physical agents.
Physical therapy is probably the best option in terms of having more function. Part of it is getting used to having pain.
Tens units
Accupuncture
Massage and moist heat.
Traction, previously very popular, it was essentially disproven as working other than as a way of enforcing rest in the 1990's and is not commonly used anymore.
Indeed, rest for back pain has gotten a rather bad reputation and tends to be associated with worsening ability to ambulate while physical therapy has gotten better results and is currently probably the most recommended modality.

This is a short summary of the literature. More detail would be possible but it would be both very long, very technical and with many links to the research to basically say the same things.

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