I just read a great article that ran with the title “The truth about back pain“. It was a breakdown of the success (or otherwise) of various treatment approaches for low back pain, and it’s well worth a read. It outlines the risks associated with injections, painkillers, unnecessary medical scans and surgery. But if you’re short on time, here are a few choice quotes:

“In 2012, an outbreak of fungal meningitis in the US was traced to contaminated epidural steroid injections administered for back pain – more than 700 people had to be treated for persistent fungal infections and 48 people died. A bad result by any measure. But to make things worse, says Professor Chris Maher, even the uncontaminated injections were unlikely to have offered much pain relief for the patients. “In the short term the injections are only marginally more effective than a placebo and in the long-term, no better than a placebo.”

“”There’s also a downside with prescribing stronger pain medications, such as opioids. In the US over the past decade we have seen a major increase in prescription of opioid analgesics; and at the same time the number of deaths involving opioid analgesics has quadrupled.”

“”Clinical guidelines say don’t send people off for imaging, encourage them to remain as active as possible and use simple pain killers as a starting point,” he says. “Instead, what tends to happen is they get sent off for imaging straight away, they get prescribed much more complex pain medicine than they need and they often get told to go to bed.”

“If you send people off for imaging they are more likely to end up being offered surgery”

““The usual care provided by clinicians for lower back pain does not match the care endorsed in international evidence-based guidelines and may not provide the best outcomes for patients. The unendorsed care may contribute to the high costs of managing [the pain], and some aspects of the care provided carry a higher risk of adverse effects.”

You can read the full article here http://www.northqueenslandregister.com.au/news/metro/national/general/the-truth-about-back-pain/2674827.aspx?storypage=0