NICE recommends early intensive management of persistent low back pain

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2115

Published 27 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2115
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2115

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NICE recommends early intensive management of persistent low back pain

Susan Mayor

¹ London

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

People with persistent non-specific low back pain should bemanaged early and much more actively than often occurs to reducetheir risk of long term pain and disability, recommends guidancefor the NHS in England and Wales published this week.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)guideline is designed to improve the early treatment and managementof persistent or recurrent low back pain, which is defined asnon-specific low back pain that has lasted for more than sixweeks but for less than a year.

Low back pain is a common disorder that affects about one thirdof the UK adult population a year. About 20% of people consulttheir GP about it. There is a generally accepted approach tothe management of back pain of less than six weeks’ duration,based on keeping active and taking analgesics to relieve thepain, but the guideline warns, "What . . . [Full text of this article]

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