Articles: low-back-pain.
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The Fear-Avoidance Model (FAM) of chronic pain posits that pain catastrophizing and fear-avoidance beliefs are prognostic for disability and chronicity. In acute low-back pain, early physical therapy (PT) is effective in reducing disability in some patients. How early PT impacts short- and long-term changes in disability for patients with acute pain is unknown. Based on the FAM, we hypothesized that early reductions in pain catastrophizing and fear-avoidance beliefs would mediate early PT's effect on changes in disability (primary outcome) and pain intensity (secondary outcome) over 3 months and 1 year. ⋯ In acute low-back pain, early PT may improve disability and pain outcomes at least partly through reducing patients' catastrophizing.
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This is a retrospective cohort study. ⋯ 4.