10 facts every person should know about back pain

Two pages on PainSci cite O’Sullivan 2019: 1. When to Worry About Low Back Pain 2. The Complete Guide to Low Back Pain 

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PainSci notes on O’Sullivan 2019:

A highly credible and readable explanation of back pain myths. Lead author Peter O’Sullivan shared the myths and a nice featured infographic in a tweet. Here are the “unhelpful” low back pain beliefs, “culturally endorsed and not supported by evidence,” identified by the authors:

1. FALSE: Low back pain is usually a serious medical condition.
2. FALSE: Low back pain will become persistent and deteriorate in later life.
3. FALSE: Persistent low back pain is always related to tissue damage.
4. FALSE: Scans are always needed to detect the cause of low back pain.
5. FALSE: Pain related to exercise and movement is always a warning that harm is being done to the spine and a signal to stop or modify activity.
6. FALSE: Low back pain is caused by weak “core” muscles and having a strong core protects against future Low back pain.
7. FALSE: Repeated spinal loading results in “wear and tear” and tissue damage.
8. FALSE: Pain flare-ups are a sign of tissue damage and require rest.
9. FALSE: Treatments such as strong medications, injections and surgery are effective, and necessary, to treat Low back pain.

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Specifically regarding O’Sullivan 2019:

• twitter.com/…

This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:

• Classical Conditioning Fails to Elicit Allodynia in an Experimental Study with Healthy Humans. Madden 2017 Pain Med.
• Topical glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) and eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion achilles tendinopathy (the NEAT trial): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Kirwan 2024 Br J Sports Med.
• Placebo analgesia in physical and psychological interventions: Systematic review and meta-analysis of three-armed trials. Hohenschurz-Schmidt 2024 Eur J Pain.
• Recovery trajectories in common musculoskeletal complaints by diagnosis contra prognostic phenotypes. Aasdahl 2021 BMC Musculoskelet Disord.
• Cannabidiol (CBD) products for pain: ineffective, expensive, and with potential harms. Moore 2023 J Pain.