Time will heal tennis elbow as well as or better than more active treatments, a study published in the British Medical Journal says.

The Australian study took 198 participants with tennis elbow — a muscle or tendon strain often caused by a repetitive motion — and divided them into three groups.

One received physiotherapy, the second got steroid injections, and the third had to "wait-and-see."

After six weeks, 78 per cent of the group that got the corticosteroid injections reported significant improvement, compared with physiotherapy, with a 65 per cent success rate, and just 27 per cent in the wait-and-see group.

But the injected group quickly lost ground, with 47 of 65 "successes" regressing and reporting much poorer outcomes in the long term.

In the period after the initial six-weeks, the physiotherapy group healed better than the injection group. But after a year, there was no difference between physio and wait-and-see.

"The significant short-term benefits of corticosteroid injection reversed after six weeks, with high recurrence rates, implying that this treatment should be used with caution in the management of tennis elbow," the study said.

The wait-and-see group were told the pain would eventually go away, and were given specific instructions on reducing it by using over-the-counter remedies, heat and cold.

The injection group got one needle, and a second one if their medical practitioner advised it.

The third group received eight 30-minute physiotherapy sessions over six weeks, and were taught home exercises and self-manipulation.

Up to three per cent of the general population suffers from tennis elbow, and as many as 15 per cent of workers in some specific industries, such as painters.