Stress can retard recovery from back pain
POSTED March 30, 2009 - 22:06 | POSTED BY Riya Chauhan
Last edited by Sham Kamboj on March 30, 2009 - 22:44
Sydney, March 30: Stress and sorrow can hinder with the recovery from back pain, according to researchers at the University of Queensland.
Dr Nick Penney studied the relationship between lower back pain and psychological, physiological and social factors. He found that people who are unhappy with their job and those who live alone are more likely to suffer from back pain and take a lot longer to recover.
The five-year study revealed that working in a high-demand but low-control office environment, or dealing with an unhelpful management style at work may act as causative factor of lower back pain.
"In fact, the biopsychosocial model, which recognises the importance of biological, psychological and social factors in illnesses is now understood to be central in understanding human health in general, and pain in particular," said Dr Nick Penney, lead author of the study.
To measure the effect of social and psychological factors on the prognosisdefine of lower back pain, 91 research participants in the Sunshine Coast and another 40 from the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand were made to answer questionnaire developed by Penney.
He found that the extent of the recovery was less decided by the injury itself and more by the context surrounding the injury.
"For example, if someone agreed that back pain was dominating their life, they appeared to have a worse recovery prognosis than someone who disagreed," he said.
It was also found that being away from work on compensation and a lack of social support also raised the risk of slower recovery from back pain.
Researchers insist that the associated psychological and social factors of back pain sufferers can adequately predict their recovery outcome, without any complicate diagnostic testing.
However, diagnostic tools such as X-rays must not be ignored in some cases where a significant trauma was sustained, or when there is any other relevant medical history.
“In some cases, how we fear the pain and react to it can be more disabling than the pain itself,” he said.
Dr. Penney calls for changing a patient's perceptions about what is going on, and helping them better understand why they feel better some days and not others. Merely telling the patients what they can do for themselves, can prove to be of great help in their recovery.
