Articles: low-back-pain.
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A brief review of current literature and issues on drug therapy for low back pain. ⋯ It seems reasonable to recommend acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for patients with acute back pain, with efforts to minimize costs and complications. Muscle relaxants and narcotic analgesics may be appropriate for some patients, but selection criteria are unclear, and these drugs should be prescribed for fixed periods. Drug treatment for chronic low back pain is less clear, and a current controversy centers on the use of chronic narcotic analgesics for such patients. Future research should include evaluating combinations of medications, combinations of medication and physical therapy, systemic corticosteroid therapy, trigger point injections, and narcotic use for patients with chronic pain. Spinal stenosis is common in the older population, and more drug trials are needed for this condition.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Should the gap be filled between guidelines and actual practice for management of low back pain in primary care? The Quebec experience.
A prospective cohort study. ⋯ Health services utilization for back pain in Quebec was equal or lower to what currently is practiced elsewhere, but access to specialists was not meeting the current recommendations. This would represent a 12% net increase in new specialist contacts and a quicker access in 39% who saw a specialist. Before such an effort can be considered, health care planners will need a better definition of the role of the specialist consultation in the guidelines and scientific evidence specifically addressing their benefit in primary care, especially in the absence of a specific diagnosis.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Predicting poor outcomes for back pain seen in primary care using patients' own criteria.
A prospective cohort study of patients seen in primary care for low back pain. ⋯ The proportion of primary care patients with back pain who have poor outcomes appears to be higher than generally recognized. Ways of improving how primary care responds to patients with persisting pain should be investigated.
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Review Comparative Study
Spinal manipulation for low back pain. An updated systematic review of randomized clinical trials.
Systematic review of randomized clinical trials. ⋯ The efficacy of spinal manipulation for patients with acute or chronic low back pain has not been demonstrated with sound randomized clinical trials. There certainly are indications that manipulation might be effective in some subgroups of patients with low back pain. These impressions justify additional research efforts on this topic. Methodologic quality remains a critical aspect that should be dealt with in future studies.
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This is the second of two papers that systematically review available scientific evidence on the causes of disability from occupational low back pain, and the effectiveness of interventions to prevent it after its onset (secondary prevention). This paper reviews the national history of how back pain and the risk factors for its extension into chronic disability, followed by a critical summary of intervention studies attempting to reduce the duration of this disability, and to evaluate the results.