As a chiropractor, I see these cases virtually every day, and I do many a house call, for often the patient is simply unable to move. The spasms of acute back pain can literally take the legs out from beneath you. Even a simple task such as turning over in bed becomes near impossible, and the mere thought of getting out of bed causes a cold sweat.
These experiences can be frightening, and people do not soon forget just how much pain they suffered during this time or just how paralyzed and afraid they were. Unfortunately, this fear frequently leads to a delay in recovery. Not only does the fear delay recovery but quite often poor advice from a well-meaning but ill-informed physician can cause a protracted and unsatisfying recovery as well. Patients often spend too many days in bed and take too much time off work. They develop an attitude that their back is somehow made of glass and that the slightest wrong move will cause a setback. Physicians tell these people to avoid lifting and sports, and even encourage sometimes unrealistic things like changing occupations and stopping activities that have nothing to do with low back rehabilitation.
The experience with pain combined with some frightening expert advice often instills groundless fears that hamper proper recovery. The big problem with bouts of back pain is the all-too-common progression into states of chronic or recurrent pain. Recurrency occurs when a person experiences numerous acute episodes, whereas the term chronic implies long term, low grade pain and disability.
In order to discover just how important activity is to getting over back pain, researchers in Seattle set out find a large group of people who had been in pain for eight to ten weeks and who had significantly reduced their activities as a result. They randomly assigned the 240 patients they found who fit these criteria into two groups, one for increased activity and one who would just keep doing what their doctors told them, so-called "usual care."
The activity group had a 90 minute psychology session in which they discussed back pain related fears, the benefits of getting their former lives back in terms of sport, recreation and activity, and how to set treatment goals. This group then had a couple of sessions with physiotherapists who taught stretching, work hardening and other appropriate exercises. Finally this group had another short psychotherapy session to deal with recurrences and the pains of healing and getting moving again.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Dr. David L. Phillips's Chiropractic Health topic, please visit the Discussions page.