Group therapy, involving the now fashionable "talking therapy" has been shown to be effective and cheap in managing low back pain, as reported in BBC Health.
Reported in The Lancet, the UK based trial involved 600 patients, with 400 being offered six sessions of group therapy and the remaining 200 remaining with standard care.
The kind of group work has a cognitive behavioural slant and works to alter any unhelpful and counterproductive beliefs that a person might have about back pain and physical activity.
The aim is to help people manage their pain most effectively, rather than trying to cure them. This involves reducing "fear avoidance" which may limit activity, perpetuating back pain problems.
A year after the programme the measures of pain and disability were significantly better in the group therapy group.
Pain management courses, often run by physiotherapists and clinical psychologists, use similar techniques for people with more severe chronic pain conditions.
Overall the treatment has been found to be relatively cheap and to have a longer term effect that most typical treatments for low back pain, which are usually ineffective anyhow.
Hampstead physiotherapists are aware that cognitive behavioural principles should be combined with advice to stay active and exercise to optimise treatment for low back pain. |
