Overview of Low Back Pain

The good news is that most people with low back pain will recover well within about six weeks; the bad news is that for the 10% or so who don’t get better, recover the low back pain can become chronic, often with accompanying sciatica, and managing the pain can be a long, expensive and frustrating experience that is very difficult to live with.

In the US, low back pain is one of the most common conditions and one of the leading causes of physician visits. In fact, at least four out of five adults will experience low back pain at some point in their lives.

The underlying causes of low back pain are many, often poorly understood, and often difficult to accurately diagnose. There are many structures in the low back that can cause pain, including the interconnecting network of large and small nerves, muscles, vertebrae and other bones, ligaments, tendons, large and small joints, and discs.

Unlike many forms of pain, with low back pain, the severity of the pain is often not at all indicative of the severity of physical damage. For example, muscle spasm from simple strained muscle in the low back can cause excruciating pain, making it difficult to walk or even stand, while a large herniated disc or a completely degenerated disc can be completely painless.

It is important to note that many types of low back pain actually have no known anatomical cause; but this doesn’t mean that the pain doesn’t exist. The anatomical cause of the patient’s pain may not be identifiable, but this does not necessarily signify that the pain is psychosomatic. Actually, an estimated 90% of patients with pain will not have an anatomical cause of their pain that can be identified.

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