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. 2022 Dec 14;23(2):273-283.
doi: 10.1515/sjpain-2022-0133. Print 2023 Apr 25.

The treatment lottery of chronic back pain? A case series at a multidisciplinary pain centre

Anna Mattsson  1 , Nazdar Ghafouri  1 , Emmanuel Bäckryd  1
Affiliations
Free article

The treatment lottery of chronic back pain? A case series at a multidisciplinary pain centre

Anna Mattsson et al. Scand J Pain. .
Free article

Abstract

Objectives: Despite the number of people affected by chronic back pain, and the many available treatment options, even the best modalities provide limited pain reduction on a group level, often without simultaneous improvements in functioning or health-related quality of life. The objective was to provide an overview of the treatment of chronic back pain in clinical practice at a multidisciplinary pain centre, and to study patient and pain characteristics in different treatment groups.

Methods: 104 chronic back pain patients (primary ICD-10-SE-diagnosis M53.0-M54.9 excluding M54.1 and M54.3), referred to the Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, University Hospital, Linköping in 2015, were studied using data from the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation, self-reported medication data, and a retrospective medical record review.

Results: The following treatment groups were identified: rehabilitation (n=21), analgesics (n=33), invasive intervention (n=14), and no treatment (n=35). Significant differences between groups were found with regards to age, sick leave, education level, persisting pain duration, punishing responses by significant other, previous invasive intervention, receiving sub-clinic, physician speciality and referring care level.

Conclusions: Overall, patient demographics were associated with treatment strategy to a higher degree than patient-reported outcome measures. Moreover, physician speciality and organisational factors seemed to play a role in treatment choice.

Keywords: analgesics; cervical spine; low back pain; opioids; pulsed radiofrequency treatment; rehabilitation; spine.

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