Got back or neck pain? SaveYourself.ca offers two advanced tutorials you might be interested in: Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! and Save Yourself from Neck Pain!
published 4/20/08
Neck and Back Pain Spending Fails
New research shows that there has been no benefit to increased medical spending on surgeries and drugs for low back and neck pain
by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada MOREclose
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
Dr. Richard Deyo continues to publish some of the most intelligent opinions available on the subject of spinal problems. As second author of a recent paper about spinal treatment spending in The Journal of the American Medical Association, he commented on it for the New York Times:
I think the truth is we have perhaps oversold what we have to offer. All the imaging we do, all the drug treatments, all the injections, all the operations have some benefit for some patients. But I think in each of those situations we’ve begun using those tests or treatments more widely than science would really support.
Already on the record everywhere he possibly could be, Deyo continues to be a prominent voice of reason in a wilderness of all-too-popular neck and back pain mythology, and I wish more surgeons, physicians and therapists would pay attention.
The JAMA study was based on large surveys, in which tens of thousands of people reported their pain problems and medical spending. While such a research method is limited in many ways, the results were pretty striking. Often in medical research much is made of results that are barely statistically significant — but in this case, the data is really dramatic. In 1997, the average American with spinal pain spent about $4600 annually on health care — almost twice as much as people without back or neck pain. Unfortunately, by 2005, not only had the number of people reporting such pain increased by 4%, but they were spending more as well, a lot more: about $6000, a whopping 30% increase. Of course, these figures were all adjusted for inflation and otherwise statistically tweaked.
By 2005, not only had the number of people reporting such pain increased by 4%, but they were spending more as well — a lot more, 30% more.
So, significantly more people spent significantly more money on their back pain. But did those people actually enjoy any improvement in their symptoms? There may have been more of them, and they may have been poorer … but did they feel any better?
Sadly, no. In fact, they’re “mental health, physical functioning, work or school limitations, and social limitations” were all reduced. Talk about the worst of both worlds: a more expensive failure for more people.
The authors of the study concluded:
Spine-related expenditures have increased substantially from 1997 to 2005, without evidence of corresponding improvement in self-assessed health status.
This research is an important new piece of the puzzle, one of the best new pieces of hard evidence that expensive therapies for back and neck pain — primarily drugs and surgery and physical therapies based on the idea that the spine is fragile and degenerating and vulnerable to minor deviations from normal structure (structuralism) — are just not working, that there is something really wrong with that conventional wisdom.
We have the worst of both worlds: a more expensive failure for more people.
But, of course, we really didn’t need that evidence. It has already been well-established — as Dr. Deyo and many others have been saying for years — that the fear of problems like disk herniation and joints being “out” has been blown way out of proportion by mainstream doctors and therapists, as well as alternative health care professionals.
For scientifically sound and current information about low back and neck pain, see my advanced tutorials:
Save Yourself from Low Back Pain!
This straight-talking, heavily referenced tutorial debunks junky low back pain theories in detail. There are no miracle cures here, but about a hundred pounds of science and good sense. Add it to your shopping cart now ($19.95) or read the first few sections for free!
$1995
Save Yourself from Neck Pain!
What makes a neck crick tick? Ideal for patients with jammed necks, and puzzled professionals who aren’t sure what to do with this phenomenon. Add it to your shopping cart now ($19.95) or read the first few sections for free!
$1995
Save Yourself from Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome!
Myofascial trigger points are to muscle what pimples are to skin. This tutorial walks you through every imaginable self-treatment option for the world’s most common cause of aches and pains. Add it to your shopping cart now ($19.95) or read the first few sections for free!
$1995
