BMJ  2005;330:53-54 (8 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7482.53

Editorial

Physiotherapy for neck and back pain

We need to know who will benefit from which intervention

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Spinal pain is not a new problem. Back strain is mentioned in the oldest surviving surgical text, the Edwin Smith papyrus from 1500 BC. However, the place of mechanical spinal pain in medicine has changed dramatically over the centuries. As life expectancy and general health conditions have improved, neck and back pain have become major causes of morbidity and health expenditure.¹ Back pain was recently estimated to affect around 17.3 million people in the United Kingdom at an annual cost of £1bn ($1.9bn; 1.4bn) to the NHS and an additional £565m to private healthcare providers.¹ The recent publication of three papers in the BMJ, including one in this issue, addressing the physiotherapeutic and manipulative treatment of spinal pain is therefore timely (p 75).^2-4 It also coincides with the release of guidance from the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance.⁵

The alliance has brought together a multidisciplinary group to evaluate . . . [Full text of this article]

MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD

MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, (cc@mrc.soton.ac.uk)

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Randomised trial of a brief physiotherapy intervention compared with usual physiotherapy for neck pain patients: outcomes and patients' preference

Jennifer A Klaber Moffett, David A Jackson, Stewart Richmond, Seokyung Hahn, Simon Coulton, Amanda Farrin, Andrea Manca, and David J Torgerson
BMJ 2005 330: 75. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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• Wilde, V. E, Ford, J. J, McMeeken, J. M (2007). Indicators of Lumbar Zygapophyseal Joint Pain: Survey of an Expert Panel With the Delphi Technique. ptjournal 87: 1348-1361 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Manca, A., Dumville, J. C., Torgerson, D. J., Klaber Moffett, J. A., Mooney, M. P., Jackson, D. A., Eaton, S. (2007). Randomized trial of two physiotherapy interventions for primary care back and neck pain patients: cost effectiveness analysis. Rheumatology (Oxford) 46: 1495-1501 [Abstract] [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

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Treatment of back and neck pain

Brian J Sweetman
bmj.com, 8 Jan 2005 [Full text]

A personal view on what the authors refer to as the "quagmire that is the management of spinal pain"

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Re: A personal view on what the authors refer to as the "quagmire that is the management of spinal pain"

Robert Goldsmith
bmj.com, 30 Mar 2007 [Full text]