Back Pain News
Report highlights chronic back pain link to unemployment
One in five Europeans with chronic back pain are unable to work at all as a result of their chronic pain, according to new research sponsored by Pfizer.
The Pain Proposal, funded by the pharmaceutical company and presented to the European Parliament today, includes a survey of 2,019 people with chronic pain across 15 European counties. It suggests that of those able to work, 61% said their condition had impacted directly on their employment status.
According the report, inefficiencies in the treatment of chronic pain are resulting in “increasing healthcare costs and prolongued patient suffering”.
Musculoskeletal problems are a major cause of claims for group income protection and group private medical insurances. Insurers have developed a number of strategies for tackling this, from open access to physiotherapy to supporting self-management of pain.
Previous studies have shown that chronic pain costs Europe billions of Euros every year, with national costs ranging from €1.1 billion to nearly €50 billion. On average, one in five adults in Europe suffer from moderate to severe chronic pain.
Causes of chronic lower back pain
What is ‘chronic lower back pain’?
Lower back pain is a condition which affects millions of Americans as well as people around the world and is not merely confined to the elderly as we assume most of the time. But, it is true that the condition is seen at a higher frequency among the elderly individuals. The chronic back pain is an entity of the spectrum of lower back pains which would last for more than 3 months and would have an effect on the patients’ day to day activities. Chronic lower back pain can be associated with certain other manifestations including sleep disturbances, depression, tiredness, irritability, morning stiffness as well as with an inability to maintain the same posture for prolonged time duration.
AAOS: Vertebroplasty Not Recommended for Back Pain
New guideline strongly recommends against surgical fix for spinal compression fractures.
Based on a lack of scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of vertebroplasty for the treatment of spinal compression fractures, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is strongly recommending against the popular procedure, which involves injecting bone cement into the spinal vertebrae.
“When you look at the science and research to-date, there is very strong Level 1 evidence to suggest that vertebroplasty does not provide the types of benefits it was previously thought to provide,” says Stephen I. Esses, MD, the Houston, Texas-based orthopedic surgeon who led the AAOS workgroup that developed a new clinical practice guideline on the treatment of symptomatic osteoporotic spinal compression fractures. In a press release, AAOS clarified that Level 1 evidence “refers to studies done under the strictest scientific guidelines, including blinding randomization.”
The work group, which began researching this issue in 2008, largely based its recommendation on 2 randomized, controlled clinical trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, which showed no statistical difference in back pain levels among patients who underwent vertebroplasty and the control group. The work group did not find published criticisms of the 2 trials to be scientifically compelling.
“Previous studies have touted the benefits of vertebroplasty, however our scientific research suggests this surgical procedure does not offer any advantages, over the placebo control,” says Dr. Esses. He notes, however, that patients who have already undergone the procedure don’t need to worry: “There are no reported negative side effects.”