Category Archives: Back Pain

Unequal Access to Chiropractic Pain Relief Care for Back Pain in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Patience Moyo, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice
Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research
Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice
Brown University School of Public Health

Patience Moyo, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice Brown University School of Public Health

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Clinical practice guidelines recommend nonpharmacologic treatments as first-line therapies for managing chronic pain. However, little is known about the use of guideline-recommended pain therapies and whether use varies in demographic subgroups. Individuals with co-occurring chronic pain and opioid use disorder deserve particular consideration because of their increased risk of harm from opioids and other pharmacologic therapies combined with their susceptibility to social and structural barriers to accessing health care.

We sought to understand whether the well-established racial and ethnic inequities in pain management extend to individuals with opioid use disorder and to nonpharmacologic pain treatments, specifically physical therapy and chiropractic care.

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Cognitive Functional Therapy: Clinical and Cost-Effective Pain Reduction For Chronic, Disabling Low Back Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Peter Kent
Adjunct Associate Professor
Curtin School of Allied Health
Curtin University, Perth
WA, Australia

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Although there had been clinical trials of Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) with promising results, there had not been a fully powered trial comparing CFT with usual care, nor any trials in Australia. Previous trials had included a maximum of 3 CFT clinicians, whereas the RESTORE trial included the training of 18 physiotherapists to CFT competency who had minimal prior exposure to CFT. No previous CFT trial had included an evaluation of 6161615g8cost effectiveness of CFT, nor examined whether the use of wearable motion sensor biofeedback might enhance the effect of CFT.

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Sciatica: Surgical Treatment May Provide Only Temporary Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Chang Liu
Researcher, PHD Student
University of Sydney

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Sciatica is a common condition caused by lumbar nerve root compression and/or inflammation, usually due to a herniated disc. Non-surgical treatments, such as exercise, are recommended as the first step, with pharmacological and interventional options available if needed.

Surgery, specifically discectomy, is a common treatment for sciatica but evidence supporting its effectiveness is uncertain. 

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High School Students Risk Back Pain with Prolonged Texting and Cell Phone Use

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Alberto De Vitta
Department of Physical Therapy
Centro Universitário das Faculdades Integradas de Ourinhos
Água do Cateto, Ourinhos
Brazil

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: This research is part of a line of research that addresses the intersectoriality between education and health, in which it seeks to study the various risk factors of the educational environment that can influence the health of schoolchildren.

PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?

Response: In this study the main results were:  There is high prevalence and incidence of Thoracic Spine Pain (TSP) in high school students and the TSP is associated with the female sex, mental health problems, and body posture while using cell phones, tablets, and PCs as well as with the duration of use of cell phone and tablet.

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Study Finds Uncertain Effectiveness of Common Medications for Low Back Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Dr. Wewege

Dr Michael Wewege, PhD
Research Fellow – Neuroscience Research Australia

Prof. McAuley

Prof James McAuley, PhD
Director – Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia,
Professor – School of Health Sciences,
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia




PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: We conducted this study because medicines are the most common treatment for adults with acute non-specific low back pain. One of the most important questions is “What is the best medicine to use?” We wanted to compare the medicines with each other because this is the information patients and physicians want to know, but previous research has focused on only comparing medicines to placebo. Physicians are deciding between these medicines based on their clinical expertise; we hoped to support their decision making with a rigorous piece of research.

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Study Evaluates Equine-Facilitated Therapy For Back Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Sanna Mattila-Rautiainen
Biomedicine, Sports and Exercise Medicine
University of Eastern Finland

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: The background of our study is to evaluate the effect of 12 weeks Equine Facilitated Physical therapy intervention for Chronic Low Back Pain patients´ functional impairments that were self-assessed, to their wellbeing and amount of pain.

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Promising Pain Relief with Injectable Allograft for Chronic Low Back Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Dr. Douglas Beall, MD
Chief of Radiology Services
Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, OK

Dr. Beall

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Discogenic low back pain is typically caused by damaged discs in the spine. Viable disc allograft supplementation is a minimally invasive treatment that injects specialized cells and fluid into a damaged disc. The cells of the injected fluid encourage the cells in the damaged disc to regenerate with healthy tissue.

As for the study itself, 50 patients at nine sites participated in an extension of the randomized control Viable Allograft Supplemented Disc Regeneration in the Treatment of Patients With Low Back Pain (VAST) Trial. Of these, 46 received allograft treatment and four received saline. The treatment group was similar to the patient population at the start of the VAST trial in age, sex, race, ethnicity, body mass index and smoking status. Pain levels were evaluated using the VAS Analog Scale, and functionality was measured using the Oswestery Disability Index (ODI).

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Review of Non-Opioid Pain Medications for Back Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Filippo Migliorini MD, PhD, MBA
Department of Orthopedic, Trauma, and Reconstructive Surgery
RWTH University Hospital of Aachen

Dr. Migliorini

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Acute low back pain imposes a significant socioeconomic burden worldwide. The pharmacological management of acute low back pain aims to restore daily activities and improve the quality of life. No magic bullet exists: interventions to reduce pain and disability are available, but long-term results are unpredictable. This is often hard to accept for clinicians and patients and provides fertile soil to quacks, faith healers, and gurus to promote miraculous non-evidence-based solutions. Education in this regard needs to improve.

Acute low back pain management is not well codified and extremely heterogeneous, and residual symptoms are common. Depending on the individual severity, pharmacological management may range from nonopioid to opioid analgesics. The literature regarding the best non-opioid pharmacological management of acute low back pain is limited, and the indications available in the literature are conflicting. Our investigation aimed to systematically review the level I evidence on the administration of myorelaxants, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and paracetamol in patients with low back pain.  

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Low Back Pain: Early Physical Therapy Associated with Reduced Imaging, Invasive Procedures and ER Visits

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Richard L. Skolasky, Jr., Sc.D.
Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Vice Chair of Research, Orthopaedic Surgery
Director, Surgical Outcomes Research Center
Johns Hopkins University
601 North Caroline Street, Room 5244
Baltimore, MD 21287

Dr. Skolasky

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Low back pain (LBP) affects a sizeable proportion of the US population (from 1.4 to 20%), and accounts for substantial healthcare expenditures (between $12 billion and $91 billion, not accounting for indirect costs associated with loss of productivity and unemployment). Current recommendations for initial treatment of acute low back pain include physical therapy. Earlier initiation of physical therapy has been associated with less healthcare utilization and spending; however, these studies have been limited to single institutions or health systems. Research is needed to evaluate the effects of early physical therapy on healthcare use, particularly within the first 30 days after initial presentation for acute low back pain, when they are most likely to experience pain and seek care.

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Review of Pain Relief Medications for Back and Neck Pain in Older Adults

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Michael Perloff, MD PhD Director, Neurology Pain Medicine, Boston Medical Center Assistant Professor, Boston University Medical School
Dr. Perloff

Michael Perloff, MD PhD
Director, Neurology Pain Medicine, Boston Medical Center
Assistant Professor, Boston University Medical School

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study? 

Response: Spine-related pain (low back pain/neck pain) is very common in older adults. Physicians can be reluctant to use pain medications older patients due to reduced liver and kidney function, comorbid medical problems and background polypharmacy. We performed an extensive review of the medical literature with a focus on double-blind, placebo controlled, clinical trials.

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