Tag Archives: #backpain

Review Finds Spinal Cord Stimulation Effective for Reducing Back and Leg Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Frank Huygen
Erasmus Medical Center
Rotterdam, the Netherlands

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

Response: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a widely accepted therapy for people who have chronic pain that has been difficult to treat with conventional medical management (CMM) such as analgesics, physical therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Yet despite its clinical success, there is still debate about aspects of SCS therapy.

This systemic review and network meta-analysis aimed to improve upon prior evidence reviews by including more up to date randomized clinical trial data and using more advanced analytical methods. We evaluated the efficacy associated with SCS, including modern RCTs that compared novel forms of SCS compared to traditional SCS, or compared with CMM.

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Study Finds Back Pain May Be Eased by Reduced Sitting

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Jooa Norha, MSc (Health Sciences), PT
Doctoral researcher
Turku PET Centre
University of Turku, Finland

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

Response: The previous evidence linking sedentary behavior (or sitting to simplify) and back pain is surprisingly scarce. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether reducing sitting could help with back pain among adults who sit for major parts of the day. And indeed, we did find that reducing sitting for about 40 min/day for six months kept back pain from worsening.

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WalkBack Trial: Simple Exercise Strategy plus Education Can Help Prevent Recurrence of Low Back Pain

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Natasha C Pocovi
Department of Health Sciences
Macquarie University, Sydney
NSW, Australia

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

Response: Approximately 620 million people globally, reported suffering low back pain in 2020. While it’s not considered a life-threatening disease, we can see the very serious impacts it can have on people’s lifestyle, ability to work, and overall quality of life. While much work is being done to treat low back pain, ‘prevention’ is mostly unchartered territory. This is particularly important given the high rates of recurrent low back pain, where 7 in 10 people who recover from an episode of low back pain will have a new episode in the next 12 months.

A small number of studies have examined exercise to prevent the recurrence of low back pain. These have primarily focused on group-based, complex exercises focusing on a combination of strengthening and improving the endurance and flexibility of the spine. Some of these were delivered over several supervised sessions, some as many as 20 x 1-hour sessions. This becomes less feasible for patients to engage in.

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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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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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