Influence of directional preference on two clinical dichotomies: acute versus chronic pain and axial low back pain versus sciatica

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether outcomes from treatment determined by subjects' directional preference (ie, reduction in back and/or leg pain, by performing a single direction of repeated end-range lumbar movement) would vary based on pain duration, location, or neurologic status.

Design: A secondary analysis of data from a multicenter randomized clinical trial.

Setting: Eleven physical therapy departments or clinics in 5 countries, with referrals for both acute and chronic low back pain.

Subjects: Seventy-one of 80 subjects with acute to chronic low back pain, and with and without radicular leg pain, and with or without mild neurologic deficit, were found at baseline to have a directional preference and were then treated with directional exercises that matched their directional preference.

Methods: All of the subjects were treated for 2 weeks with directional exercises and compatible posture modifications. Independent variables were pain duration, pain location, and neurologic status.

Main outcome measurements: Primary measures were back and leg pain intensity and function (Roland Morris Disability Questionnare). Secondary measures were activity interference, medication use, depression (Beck Depression Inventory), and a self-report of improvement.

Results: The subjects significantly improved their back and leg pain intensity, disability, and all secondary outcome measures, but pain duration, location, and neurologic status classification did not predict treatment responsiveness. Across all pain duration categories, 91%-100% either improved or resolved completely. There also was significant improvement across all pain location and neurologic status categories, with no significant differences across the outcome variables.

Conclusions: In subjects found to have a directional preference who then treated themselves with matching directional exercises, neither pain duration nor pain location and neurologic status predicted their uniformly good-to-excellent outcomes.