The Back & Neck Pain Guide


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Facts About Back and Neck Pain

 


back painBack Pain

Acute low back pain affects nearly everyone at one time or another. By age 30, nearly one-half of us will have experienced a significant episode of low back pain (1). The Nuprin Pain Report found that low back pain was second only to headache as the most common pain symptom (2).


Most medical doctors believe that 75%-90% of acute low back pain cases resolve in 4 to 6 weeks and can be treated with medication and left alone.(3) Unfortunately, research studies reveal that this isn't the case. Here are the results of several studies on low back pain:

  • After one month, only 30% of back pain patients were pain free. One year later, 50% of patients were still experiencing recurrent or persistent pain (4).
  • Even though most workers disabled by low back pain return to work within 1 month, 50% of them relapse within 1 year (5).
  • Original episodes of low back pain frequently lasts as long as 3 months - not 4 to 6 weeks (6).
  • Most acute low back pain episodes tend to improve rapidly but not completely (7).
  • Predictable, painful "flare-ups" occur producing mild to moderate activity limitations (4).


 

Neck Pain

Neck and shoulder problems occur nearly as often as low back pain (8). Like back pain, the majority of neck pain cases require more than pills and time to heal effectively. Here's what reseachers found:
neck pain

  • After one month, only 30% of neck pain patients were painfree. One year later, 50% of patients were still experiencing recurrent or persistent pain (4).
  • Only one third of neck pain patients experience complete resolution of their symptoms (9).
  • In one study, 48% of neck pain patients were still experiencing pain 1 year later (10).


Modern research demonstrates that effective treatment for back or neck pain often requires more than taking pain medication and waiting for the pain to go away. In the remaining sections of our guide, I explain what's actually responsible for 85%-90% of back and neck related pain.

 

 

References:

  1. Papegeougiu AC, Croft PR,Ferry S, et al. Estimating the prevalence of low back pain in the general population: Evidence from the South Manchester back pain survey. Spine 1995;20:1889-1894.
  2. Taylor H, Curran NM. The Nuprin Pain Report. New York: Louis Harris and Associates, 1985:1-233.
  3. Hadler NM. Regional back pain. N Engl J Med 1986;315:1090-2.
  4. Von Korff M, Deyo RA, Cherkin D, Barlow W. Back pain in primary care: Outcomes at 1 year. Spine 1993;18:855-862.
  5. Butler RJ, Johnson WG, Baldwin ML. Managing work disability: Why first return to work is not a measure of success. Industrial and Labor Rlations Review. 1995;48(3):452-469.
  6. Croft PR, Macfarlane GJ, Papagergiou AC, Thomas E, Siman AJ. Outcome of low back pain in general practice: A prospective study. BMJ 1998;316:1356-1561.
  7. Deyo RA. Practice variations, treatment fads, rising disability. Do we need a new clinical research paradigm? Spine 1993;18:2153-2162.
  8. Cote P, Cassidy JD, Carroll L. The factors associated with neck pain and its related disability in the Saskatchewan population. Spine 2000;25(9):1109-1117.
  9. Cote P, Cassidy JD, Carroll L, Dirstman V. The annual incidence and course of neck pain in the general population: A population-based cohort study. Pain 2004;112:267-273.
  10. Hill J, Lewis M, Papageourgiou AC, Dziedzic K, Croft P. Predicting persistent neck pain. A 1-year follow-up of a population cohort. Spine 2004;29:1648-1654.