Low back pain sends millions to the ER.
If you've ever suffered from a bout of low back pain, you know that finding relief is often the top priority. Low back pain sends an estimated 2.5 million Americans to hospital emergency rooms every year, which means a lot of patients are searching for treatment options that actually relieve the pain.
Medications often fall short.
Medications, or combinations of medications, are often the standard of care for low back pain, particularly in the emergency department. But recent research, including a study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine, found that certain commonly prescribed drug combinations were no more effective at relieving pain than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs alone, or even no medication at all.
Beyond being relatively ineffective for many patients, commonly prescribed medications also come with a long list of side effects, from drowsiness to nausea.
Surgery isn't always the answer either.
What about surgery? Researchers have found that some surgical procedures for back pain are no more effective than sham procedures, fake surgeries used as a scientific control that omit the step thought to be therapeutically necessary. A study published in the journal Pain Medicine found comparable long-term outcomes whether patients received the real procedure or the sham one.
Physical therapy offers a safer path to similar outcomes.
Patients are increasingly turning to safer alternatives to medication and surgery. A physical therapy regimen for low back pain is designed to reduce soft tissue pain, improve function, and build muscle strength. Studies show that the long-term outcomes of surgery and physical therapy are similar for the low back pain population, but the short-term risks are not: surgery is invasive and carries the usual surgical risks of infection, nerve damage, and blood clots, while a standardized physical therapy program can achieve similar outcomes without the price tag or the risk of complications.
Physical therapists design low back pain programs around general conditioning, lower extremity strengthening exercises, and postural education. There's no one-size-fits-all solution for back pain, so patients should work with their physical therapist, physician, and other healthcare practitioners to find the course of treatment that's right for them.