15.02.16 Research Article On Low Back Pain

INDIVIDUALISED PHYSIOTHERAPY TREATMENT IS EFFECTIVE FOR LOW BACK PAIN

An Australian study has found that physiotherapy treatment specifically tailored for the patient has significantly better outcomes than advice sessions alone.

This was a reasonably large study of 300 patients with back pain ranging from 6 months to 16 months duration. This group is traditionally seen as being very difficult to treat and achieve good results with. The study found that the patients that had the physiotherapy – 10 sessions in total, had less back and leg pain and less reduction in their activities including less sick leave than patients that just received advice (2 sessions).

The authors put forward the theory that experienced physiotherapists use treatments tailored to the individual patient which may account for the mixed results seen in more generic treatment studies.

Reference: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/50/4/237

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