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Most Patients in Study Believe LBP Flareups Have Biomedical, Rather than Psychosocial, Origins

biomedical cause, LBP

An Australian study 1 into what male and female lower back pain (LBP) patients believe about the cause of their LBP flair-ups found that the subjects were most likely to attribute the source of their recent pain to biomedical causes, including active movements and static postures, rather than psycho-social factors. Though current evidence points to a positive correlation between mental health issues, including stress, anxiety, and depression, and LBP, few of the patients in this study attributed the onset of LBP flair-ups to psycho-social causes.

What’s at Stake?

LBP is the most common global cause of disability, lost income, and productivity decreases in the marketplace. Post-acute LBP flair-ups contribute to chronic job absenteeism and economic disruption at the individual and collective societal levels. While many studies have investigated the various causes of acute LBP episodes, few have focused on the fluctuations and triggers of LBP flair-ups.

Initial episodes of LBP are considered by health professionals to be overwhelmingly biomedical/biomechanical in origin, and most patients when queried agree with that assumption.

This study was conducted to determine what LBP patients believe about the triggers of their LBP flair-ups, in the hope that better understanding patient views will lead to more effective management of intermittent, non-acute episodes of LBP.

 

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Professional LxH Dynamic Disc Model

The Study

One hundred and thirty male and female volunteer subjects with episodic LBP participated in the online study by answering questions about their beliefs about the triggers for their flair-ups. Their answers were analyzed for common factors and were then clustered into various themes and codes by similarities. These common codes were further categorized into two overarching themes—biomedical, and non-biomedical triggers.

Overarching Theme: Biomedical Triggers

More than eighty-four percent of the subjects identified their LBP flair-up triggers as biomedical. Active movement and static postures were the most commonly identified biomedical causes for this group’s LBP recurrences. Patients reporting active movement as a trigger for their recurring LBP were most likely to cite bending and twisting as the most frequent instigator of their pain. Many of these patients felt that the quality of these movements played a role in initiating their LBP. In these cases, it was not the movement itself, but the way they performed the movement that caused their pain.

Roughly 5 percent of the patients reporting active movement as the cause of their LBP flair-ups believed it was repetition of the movement that was responsible for their pain. They claimed that “overdoing” a task could lead to LBP episodes.

Some of the patients reporting biomedical triggers believed their LBP was caused by biomechanical dysfunction. Roughly two percent reported motor control issues, and another 2.3 percent blamed their pain on spinal damage of some kind. Other biomedical themes included knee pain, endometriosis, and constipation. Some patients felt their LBP flair-ups were caused by lack of exercise, and others blamed work for their pain. Two percent reported their flair-ups were caused by not taking maintenance pain medications as prescribed.

Other biomechanical causes included participation in sex, wearing the wrong shoes, and medical treatments.

Overarching Theme 2: Non-biomedical Triggers

Only 15.2 percent of the subjects questioned reported non-biomedical triggers as the source of their LBP. Two participants—one male, and one female—believed the cause of their flair-ups to be related to stress or the weather. A few reported psychological factors—including anxiety, the lack of creative outlets, family problems, and depression— as potential triggers of pain.

The patients who claimed the weather was a factor in their pain were most likely to blame a drop in barometric pressure or the cold. One patient believed the pain episodes were triggered by rain, temperature changes, or warm weather.

Two percent of patients who attributed their discomfort to non-biomedical conditions blamed irregular or bad sleep qualities for their pain. Roughly 1 percent felt their diet had something to do with their LBP flair-ups, and another 1 percent blamed fatigue.

Conclusion

More than half of the patients with intermittent LBP flair-ups believed their pain was caused by biomedical dysfunctions, and only a few believed the source of their pain was something other than biomedical problems. Active movements and static postures were the most cited triggers for LBP.

The findings in this study are consistent with previous literature about what patients believe to be the cause of their LBP. However, the lack of patient emphasis on psychosocial causes of LBP contrast with current evidence that indicates a positive correlation between psychological or mental states and persistent LBP.

The authors of this study emphasize the importance of further research into the validity of the triggers identified by the LBP patients in order to better understand LBP flair-ups and how those experiencing them conceptualize the event. Evidence indicates the efficacy of patient-centric treatment in LBP clinical outcomes, and better understanding what patients believe about their pain will help clinicians to identify more effective treatment plans to manage recurring LBP in their patients.

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