Why Knee Pain Tends to Flareup as We Age

By Dr. Angie Brown

Knee injuries are common in athletes, accounting for 41% of all athletic injuries. But knee injuries aren’t limited to competitive athletes. In our everyday lives, an accident or a quick movement in the wrong direction can injure the knee and require medical treatment. A quarter of the adult population worldwide experiences knee pain each year

As a physical therapist and board-certified orthopedic specialist, I help patients of all ages with knee injuries and degenerative conditions.

Your knees have a huge impact on your mobility and overall quality of life, so it’s important to prevent knee problems whenever possible and address pain in these joints with appropriate treatments.

Healthy Knees

The knee joint bones consist of the femur, tibia and patella. As in all healthy joints, smooth cartilage covers the surfaces of the bones, forming the joints and allowing for controlled movement.

Muscles, ligaments and tendons further support the knee joint. The anterior cruciate ligament, commonly known as the ACL, and posterior cruciate ligament, or PCL, provide internal stability to the knee. In addition, two tough pieces of fibrocartilage, called menisci, lie inside the joint, providing further stability and shock absorption.

All these structures work together to enable the knee to move smoothly and painlessly throughout everyday movement, whether bending to pick up the family cat or going for a run.

Causes of Knee Pain

Two major causes of knee pain are acute injury and osteoarthritis.

Ligaments such as the ACL and PCL can be stressed and torn when a shear force occurs between the femur and tibia. ACL injuries often occur when athletes land awkwardly on the knee or quickly pivot on a planted foot. Depending on the severity of the injury, these patients may undergo physical therapy, or they may require surgery for repair or replacement.

PCL injuries are less common. They occur when the tibia experiences a posterior or backward force. This type of injury is common in car accidents when the knee hits the dashboard, or when patients fall forward when walking up stairs.

The menisci can also experience degeneration and tearing from shear and rotary forces, especially during weight-bearing activities. These types of injuries often require rehabilitation through physical therapy or surgery.

Knee pain can also result from injury or overuse of the muscles and tendons surrounding the knee, including the quadriceps, hamstrings and patella tendon.

Both injuries to and overuse of the knee can lead to degenerative changes in the joint surfaces, known as osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a progressive disease that can lead to pain, swelling and stiffness. This disease affects the knees of over 300 million people worldwide, most often those 50 years of age and up. American adults have a 40% chance of developing osteoarthritis that affects their daily lives, with the knee being the most commonly affected joint.

Age is also a factor in knee pain. The structure and function of your joints change as you age. Cartilage starts to break down, your body produces less synovial fluid to lubricate your joints, and muscle strength and flexibility decrease. This can lead to painful, restricted movement in the joint.

Risk Factors for Knee Problems

There are some risk factors for knee osteoarthritis that you cannot control, such as genetics, age, sex and your history of prior injuries.

Fortunately, there are several risk factors you can control that can predispose you to knee pain and osteoarthritis specifically. The first is excessive weight. Based on studies between 2017 and 2020, nearly 42% of all adult Americans are obese. This obesity is a significant risk factor for diabetes and osteoarthritis and can also play a role in other knee injuries.

A lack of physical activity is another risk, with 1 in 5 U.S. adults reporting that they’re inactive outside of work duties. This can result in less muscular support for the knee and more pressure on the joint itself.

An inflammatory diet also adds to the risk of knee pain from osteoarthritis. Research shows that the average American diet, often high in sugar and fat and low in fiber, can lead to changes to the gut microbiome that contribute to osteoarthritis pain and inflammation.

Preventing and Treating Knee Pain

Increasing physical activity is one of the key elements to preventing knee pain. Often physical therapy intervention for patients with knee osteoarthritis focuses on strengthening the knee to decrease pain and support the joint during movement.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults spend at least 150 to 300 minutes per week on moderate-intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes per week on vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. These guidelines do not change for adults who already have osteoarthritis, although their exercise may require less weight-bearing activities, such as swimming, biking or walking.

The agency also recommends that all adults do some form of resistance training at least two or more days a week. Adults with knee osteoarthritis particularly benefit from quadriceps-strengthening exercises, such as straight leg raises.

Conservative treatment of knee pain includes anti-inflammatory and pain medications and physical therapy.

Medical treatment for knee osteoarthritis may include cortisone injections to decrease inflammation or hyaluronic acid injections, which help lubricate the joint. The relief from these interventions is often temporary, as they do not stop the progression of the disease. But they can delay the need for surgery by one to three years on average, depending on the number of injections.

Physical therapy is generally a longer-lasting treatment option for knee pain. Physical therapy treatment leads to more sustained pain reduction and functional improvements when compared with cortisone injections treatment and some meniscal repairs.

Patients with osteoarthritis often benefit from total knee replacement, a surgery with a high success rate and lasting results.

Surgical interventions for knee pain include the repair, replacement or removal of the ACL, PCL, menisci or cartilage. When more conservative approaches fail, patients with osteoarthritis may benefit from a partial or total knee replacement to allow more pain-free movement. In these procedures, one or both sides of the knee joint are replaced by either plastic or metal components. Afterward, patients attend physical therapy to aid in the return of range of motion.

Although there are risks with any surgery, most patients who undergo knee replacement benefit from decreased pain and increased function, with 90% of all replacements lasting more than 15 years. But not all patients are candidates for such surgeries, as a successful outcome depends on the patient’s overall health and well-being.

New developments for knee osteoarthritis are focused on less invasive therapies. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new implant that acts as a shock absorber. This requires a much simpler procedure than a total knee replacement.

Other promising interventions include knee embolization, a procedure in which tiny particles are injected into the arteries near the knee to decrease blood flow to the area and reduce inflammation near the joint. Researchers are also looking into injectable solutions derived from human bodies, such as plasma-rich protein and fat cells, to decrease inflammation and pain from osteoarthritis. Human stem cells and their growth factors also show potential in treating knee osteoarthritis by potentially improving muscle atrophy and repairing cartilage.

Further research is needed on these novel interventions. However, any intervention that holds promise to stop or delay osteoarthritis is certainly encouraging for the millions of people afflicted with this disease.

Angie Brown, DPT, is a Clinical Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at Quinnipiac University. Dr. Brown is a board-certified Orthopaedic Clinical Specialist through the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties and a Certified Lymphedema Specialist.

This article originally appeared in The Conversation and is republished with permission.

New Physical Therapy Helps Older Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Older adults suffering from chronic low back pain experienced faster pain relief after getting a new type of physical therapy focused on strengthening their hip muscles, according to a new study.

The study findings, recently reported in The Lancet Rheumatology, are notable given the limited research on back pain therapies for older adults.

“Unfortunately, the societal attitude is that older people don’t warrant the same level of care that younger people do when it comes to musculoskeletal problems,” lead author Gregory Hicks, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware, said in a press release.

“When I started this work, there were a lot of naysayers. I’d tell them, ‘Read the literature — why are we excluding older adults from low back pain research?’ We all hope to get older. Why ignore a place in time where we all hope to end up?”

Hicks and his colleagues enrolled 184 people aged 60 or older who reported moderate low back pain, hip pain, and muscle weakness for at least 6 months. Patients were randomly assigned to a hip-focused physical therapy known as Manual Therapy and Strengthening the Hip (MASH) or a more traditional physical therapy for back pain that focused on the spine. Both groups received therapy for eight weeks at the University of Delaware, Duke University or the University of Pittsburgh.

Researchers found that participants who received the MASH therapy had more pain relief after eight weeks than those who had spine-focused therapy. They also showed more improvement in walking endurance and in their ability to rise from a seated position. However, after six months, both groups showed similar levels of improvement.

Previous research by Hicks, funded by the National Institutes of Health, has studied the impact of hip impairment, vitamin D deficiency, and trunk muscle composition in older patients with low back pain. He learned that there were distinct sub-groups of patients with back pain who had unique characteristics and treatment needs.

“It’s becoming quite clear, if you make the assumption that all low back pain is the same, you’re wrong,” said Hicks. “If you can identify sub-groups of low back pain patients with similar traits, you can develop matched treatments, which hopefully lead to better outcomes.”

Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide. According to a recent Harris Poll, nearly 3 out of 10 U.S. adults currently suffer from chronic low back pain, surpassing the number of Americans who have arthritis, diabetes or heart disease. On average, the typical back pain sufferer has sought relief from at least three healthcare providers, with many treatments such as epidural steroid injections proving ineffective.   

Most Americans and Canadians Use OTC Drugs and Self-Care for Pain Relief

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Most Americans and Canadians who experience pain prefer over-the-counter drugs, exercise and bed rest over prescription pain medication, according to a large new survey. A surprising number of respondents said they do nothing or simply accept their pain.  

The online survey, led by a research team at Ontario’s Western University, asked over 4,100 adults in 2020 what types of treatment, medication or self-care methods they use to deal with or prevent pain. Respondents were given ten different pain management techniques to choose from.

The survey findings, published in the journal Innovation in Aging, show that most people use a combination of methods for pain relief, along with a healthy dose of stoicism. Over half said they use OTC pain relievers, often in combination with self-care techniques such as exercise, bed rest or physical therapy.

Over 41% selected “just live with pain” and 10% chose “do nothing” – which essentially amounts to pain acceptance.

Only one in four (24%) said they use prescription pain medication. Not surprisingly, respondents who said they had high pain levels were over four times as likely to use a prescription drug  

SOURCE: INNOVATION IN AGING

The responses from Americans and Canadians were similar, with one notable exception. Americans were twice as likely than Canadians to turn to alcohol to dull their pain, with just under 4% of Canadians using alcohol as a pain management strategy, compared to almost 8% in the U.S. Alcohol use jumped to 21% for those with the highest levels of pain in both countries.

"Our research shows that using alcohol to treat pain is somewhat common, unfortunately. Previous research has shown that is not only ineffective at treating pain, but it can actually be counterproductive," said lead author Anna Zajacova, PhD, a demographer and sociology professor at Western University. "Our study also indicates that there is likely a lot of unmet need for better treatment options for people to manage their pain."

Zajacova and her colleagues noted that high alcohol use in the U.S. may be a reflection of more limited access to healthcare than in Canada, which has a national health system.

"What we learned from this survey is that people aren't necessarily just visiting their doctor to manage their pain, and it's important to understand the non-medical and non-pharmacological strategies that people are using, for better or for worse," said Zajacova.

A major weakness of the study, which the authors acknowledge, is that they did not differentiate between acute, short-term pain and chronic pain. They also didn’t ask if the prescription pain medication used was an opioid or non-opioid.

WHO Releases First Guideline for Chronic Low Back Pain

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its first-ever guideline for managing chronic low back pain, recommending treatments such as exercise, physical therapy, chiropractic care and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Chronic low back pain — also known as “non-specific low back pain” — is defined as pain that persists longer than three months, with symptoms that cannot be accounted for by a structural spinal problem or disease process such as arthritis.

Although lower back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of disability worldwide – affecting about 619 million people – there has been little certainty about how to treat it. Almost all of the clinical trial evidence reviewed by WHO’s guideline development group was considered low or very low quality, a persistent problem.in many medical guidelines dealing with pain.

The lengthy 274-page guideline takes a dim view of some commonly used therapies for LBP, such as muscle relaxants, anticonvulsants, steroids, opioids, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), and injectable anesthetics – treatments that are primarily used in high-income countries. WHO recommends a more holistic approach to LBP, using therapies that are affordable and accessible to more people.

"Addressing chronic low back pain requires an integrated, person-centred approach. This means considering each person's unique situation and the factors that might influence their pain experience," Dr. Anshu Banerjee, WHO Director for Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Ageing, said in a press release. "We are using this guideline as a tool to support a holistic approach to chronic low back pain care and to improve the quality, safety and availability of care."

WHO recommends that adults with chronic LBP start with treatments that are the least invasive and least potentially harmful. The values and preferences of patients should also be considered, as they are more likely to adhere to therapies they consider helpful.  

Recommended Treatments for Chronic LBP

• Patient education and counseling

• Exercise or physical therapy

• Acupuncture or dry needling

• Spinal manipulation (chiropractic care)

• Massage

• Cognitive behavioral therapy or mindfulness

• NSAIDs

• Topical cayenne pepper

The guideline states that opioid analgesics “should never be used as a stand-alone treatment” for chronic LBP. When opioids are used alongside other therapies, the lowest dose should be prescribed and only for a short duration, according to WHO.

Recommendations against routine use are also made about many other pharmaceuticals, including antidepressants, anticonvulsants, muscle relaxers, glucocorticoids (steroids), weight loss drugs, and injectable anesthetics such as lidocaine or bupivacaine.  

No recommendations are made about benzodiazepines, cannabis or acetaminophen (paracetamol), primarily due to lack of evidence, but also because of potentially harmful side effects. Cayenne pepper is the only herbal remedy recommended by WHO.

The guideline does not address surgical procedures such as spinal fusions and spinal cord stimulators, or invasive procedures such as epidural injections.

WHO’s 25-member guideline development group included a broad range of clinical experts from around the world. Among them is Roger Chou, MD, a researcher and longtime critic of opioid prescribing who heads the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center. Chou is a co-author of the 2016 and 2022 CDC opioid guidelines, and has collaborated on several occasions with members of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), an anti-opioid advocacy group. Chou let his Oregon medical license lapse in 2022.

One of the clinical trials reviewed by WHO’s guideline group is a controversial Australian study – known as the OPAL study -- that found low dose opioids gave little relief to patients with short-term back and neck pain. The OPAL study has been panned by critics because the treatment period only lasted six weeks and used a formulation of oxycodone that would not normally be used in clinical practice. Nevertheless, it’s been cited as evidence that “prolonged opioid use” is ineffective.

In 2021, WHO updated its guideline on the treatment of chronic pain in children, recommending that prescription opioids only be used for children who are dying or seriously ill. An earlier WHO guideline that recommended more pediatric use of opioids was withdrawn in 2019, after two U.S. congressmen accused the United Nation’s health agency of being “corruptly influenced” by opioid manufactures.  

Physical Therapy Reduces Healthcare Costs for Low Back Pain

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Almost everyone suffers from low back pain at some point in their lives. Most recover in a few days, but for some the pain lingers and become chronic, making low back pain the world’s leading cause of disability.  

Why are some people able to recover quickly from low back pain?

For many, the answer may be early treatment with physical therapy (PT), according to a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine.   

“Our goal was to determine if early PT for patients with lower back pain had an impact on their overall health care resource utilization,” says senior author Richard Skolasky Jr., ScD, director of the Johns Hopkins Spine Outcomes Research Center. “We were especially curious about the 30 days after initial symptom onset, as this is when patients are most likely to seek care.” 

Skolasky and his colleagues analyzed healthcare data from 2010 to 2014 for nearly a million U.S. adults with acute low back pain, excluding those suffering from serious disorders such as arthritis or spinal cord injuries. About 10% of the patients received early treatment with physical therapy.

The study findings, recently published by BMC Health Services Research, showed that patients getting early PT were significantly less likely to see a chiropractor, orthopedic surgeon or pain specialist after 30 days than those who did not get physical therapy. They were also less likely to get advanced imaging, epidural steroid injections or to visit an emergency room.

Researchers estimate that healthcare costs for a typical patient getting early PT was about $500 less over 30 days than those not receiving physical therapy.

Another key finding from the study was significant geographical differences in the use of physical therapy. Patients in the West (16%) and Northeast (15%) were nearly twice as likely to get early PT than those in the Midwest (9.4%) and South (8.6%). The authors offered no explanation for why treatment patterns varied so much by region.

The study did not specifically examine whether physical therapy benefits patients with low back pain more than other forms of treatment, but the findings suggest that they did. Researchers say health outcomes should be examined more closely in future studies.

“As the U.S. population ages, the prevalence of lower back pain is expected to increase, along with the associated costs of treating it,” says Skolasky. “Furthermore, with advances in imaging and treatments, the cost of managing lower back pain has increased substantially. Our findings have important implications that may guide health care policy when examining downstream health care costs and resource utilization.” 

Previous studies have found that physical therapy and regular exercise significantly reduces low back pain. Other studies also found little evidence to support the use of opioids, spinal injections and acetaminophen for low back pain.  

Only 1 in 7 Chronic Pain Patients Use Opioids

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Have you tried physical therapy? What about yoga or Tai Chi? Did massage help you feel better?

Just about everyone in chronic pain has been asked that by family members, friends, doctors and sometimes even complete strangers.  The questions are innocent enough and usually well-meaning, but they often imply that a pain sufferer hasn’t looked beyond opioids for pain relief.

A new study shows that most people with chronic pain make extensive use of non-opioids and other “alternative” pain treatments – and that it’s relatively rare for a patient to only use opioids for pain relief.

The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, are based on answers to the 2019 National Health Survey by nearly 32,000 U.S. adults with chronic pain. The 2019 survey was the first to ask people about their use of 11 pain management techniques during the previous three months.

It turns out most people with chronic pain (54.7%) only used non-opioid pain management. And nearly a third (30.2%) used no pain therapy whatsoever. The rest either used opioids alone (4.4%) or a combination of opioids with one or more alternative treatments (10.7%).

That means only about 1 in every 7 adults with chronic pain even use opioids – a startling number when you consider the constant harping from anti-opioid activists and public health officials about how opioids are “overprescribed” in the U.S.   

“This study found that adults with chronic pain in the US use a variety of pain management techniques, including opioids,” wrote lead author Cornelius Groenewald, MB, a pediatric anesthesiologist and associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “Nonpharmacologic and nonopioid pharmacologic therapies are preferred treatments for chronic pain, and it is encouraging to note that most adults with chronic pain use a combination of various nonopioid modalities for treatment.”

Alternative Chronic Pain Therapies Used in 2019

• 18.8% Physical Therapy

• 17.6% Massage

• 15.6% Meditation or Relaxation Techniques

• 11.6% Spinal Manipulation or Chiropractic Care

• 8.5% Yoga or Tai Chi

• 5.1% Pain Self-Management Workshops

•  3.8% Psychological or CBT Therapy

• 1.8% Peer Support Group      

Nearly 40% of chronic pain sufferers reported using other therapies that were not listed in the survey. That may include treatments such as cannabis, kratom, medical devices, acupuncture or even ice packs. It would be good to include more of those options in future surveys.

Groenewald and his colleagues were disappointed that so few people used psychological techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which was the only alternative pain therapy that they said was “underused.”   

The researchers found that complementary, psychological or psychotherapeutic therapies were more likely to be used by younger adults, females and people with more education. Adults using physical, occupational or rehabilitative therapies were more likely to be older, female, highly educated and have medical insurance.

Good Attitude Improves Effectiveness of Yoga and Physical Therapy

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Yoga is a four-letter word for a lot of chronic pain patients, who are often urged to try yoga or physical therapy to ease their pain. Many pain sufferers believe exercise will only make their pain worse.

But a new study by researchers at Boston Medical University found that people with chronic lower back pain are more likely to benefit from yoga and physical therapy if they have a positive attitude about exercise.

The study involved 299 mostly low-income patients with chronic lower back pain who took weekly yoga classes or had physical therapy for 12 weeks. They were compared to a control group who had “self-care” – which consisted of reading a handbook on self-management strategies for back pain, such as stretching and strengthening exercises.

Nearly half (42%) of those who had yoga or physical therapy responded to the treatment, while only 23% of those in the self-care group had improvement in their pain and physical function.

Interestingly, participants who continued taking pain medication during the study were more likely to benefit from yoga (42%) than those who had physical therapy (34%) or self-care (11%).

"Adults living with chronic low back pain could benefit from a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment including yoga or physical therapy, especially when they are already using pain medication,' said lead author Eric Roseen, DC, a chiropractic physician at Boston Medical Center.

Another important finding from the study, which was published in the journal Pain Medicine, is the effect that “fear avoidance” can have on patient outcomes.

Among the participants who had less fear of exercise, 53 percent responded to yoga, 42 percent responded to physical therapy and 13 percent responded to self-care. In contrast, participants who had a high fear of exercise usually had a poor response, regardless of what therapy group they were in.  

Other factors that appeared to improve patient response were a high school education, higher income, employment and being a non-smoker.

"Focusing on a diverse population with an average income well below the U.S. median, this research adds important data for an understudied and often underserved population," said Roseen. "Our findings of predictors are consistent with existing research, also showing that lower socioeconomic status, multiple comorbidities, depression, and smoking are all associated with poor response to treatment."

It doesn’t take a lot of time to benefit from exercise. A 2017 study found that just 45 minutes of moderate physical activity a week improved pain and function in patients with osteoarthritis.

A few weeks of yoga significantly improved the health and mental well-being of people suffering from arthritis, according to a 2015 study at Johns Hopkins University.

Missouri Finds Managing Pain Without Opioids Isn’t Easy

By Lauren Weber, Kaiser Health News

Missouri began offering chiropractic care, acupuncture, physical therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy for Medicaid patients in April, the latest state to try an alternative to opioids for those battling chronic pain.

Yet only about 500 of the state’s roughly 330,000 adult Medicaid users accessed the program through December, at a cost of $190,000, according to Josh Moore, the Missouri Medicaid pharmacy director. While the numbers may reflect an undercount because of lags in submitting claims, the jointly funded federal-state program known in the state as MO HealthNet is hitting just a fraction of possible patients so far.

Meanwhile, according to the state, opioids were still being doled out: 109,610 Missouri Medicaid patients of all age groups received opioid prescriptions last year.

The going has been slow, health experts said, because of a slew of barriers. Such treatments are more time-consuming and involved than simply getting a prescription.

A limited number of providers offer alternative treatment options, especially to Medicaid patients. And perhaps the biggest problem? These therapies don’t seem to work for everyone.

The slow rollout highlights the overall challenges in implementing programs aimed at righting the ship on opioid abuse in Missouri — and nationwide. To be sure, from 2012 to 2019, the number of Missouri Medicaid patients prescribed opioid drugs fell by more than a third — and the quantity of opioids dispensed by Medicaid dropped by more than half.

Still, overdoses linked to legal and illicit opioids killed an estimated 1,132 Missourians in 2018 and 46,802 Americans nationally, according to the latest data available. Progress to change that can be frustratingly slow.

“The opioids crisis we got into wasn’t born in a year,” Moore said. “To expect we’d get perfect results after a year would be incredibly optimistic.”

Despite limited data on the efficacy of alternative pain management plans, such efforts have become more accepted, especially following a summer report of pain management best practices from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. States such as Ohio and Oregon see them as one part of a menu of options aimed at curbing the opioid crisis.

St. Louis chiropractor Ross Mattox, an assistant professor at chiropractic school Logan University, sees both uninsured patients and those on Medicaid at the CareSTL clinic. He cheered Missouri’s decision to expand access, despite how long it took to get here.

“One of the most common things I heard from providers,” he said, “is ‘I want to send my patient to a chiropractor, but they don’t have the insurance. I don’t want to prescribe an opioid — I’d rather go a more conservative route — but that’s the only option I have.’”

And that can lead to the same tragic story: Someone gets addicted to opioids, runs out of a prescription and turns to the street before becoming another sad statistic.

“It all starts quite simply with back pain,” Mattox said.

Practical Barriers

While Missouri health care providers now have another tool besides prescribing opioids to patients with Medicaid, the multistep approaches required by alternative treatments create many more hoops than a pharmacy visit.

The physicians who recommend such treatments must support the option, and patients must agree. Then the patient must be able to find a provider who accepts Medicaid, get to the provider’s office even if far away and then undergo multiple, time-consuming therapies.

The effort and cost that go into coordinating a care plan with multiple alternative pain therapies is another barrier.

“Covering a course of cheap opioid pills is different than trying to create a multidisciplinary individualized plan that may or may not work,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, noting that the scientific evidence of the efficacy of such treatments is mixed.

And then there’s the reimbursement issue for the providers. Corry Meyers, an acupuncturist in suburban St. Louis, does not accept insurance in his practice. But he said other acupuncturists in Missouri debate whether to take advantage of the new Medicaid program, concerned the payment rates to providers will be too low to be worthwhile.

“It runs the gamut, as everyone agrees that these patients need it,” Meyers stressed. But he said many acupuncturists wonder: “Am I going to be able to stay open if I take Medicaid?”

Structural Issues 

While helpful, plans like Missouri’s don’t address the structural problems at the root of the opioid crisis, Beletsky said.

“Opioid overutilization or overprescribing is not just a crisis in and of itself; it’s a symptom of broader structural problems in the U.S. health care system,” he said. “Prescribers reached for opioids in larger and larger numbers not just because they were being fooled into doing so by these pharmaceutical companies, but because they work really well for a broad variety of ailments for which we’re not doing enough in terms of prevention and treatment.”

Fixing some of the core problems leading to opioid dependence — rural health care “deserts” and the impact of manual labor and obesity on chronic pain — requires much more than a treatment alternative, Beletsky said.

And no matter how many alternatives are offered, he said, opioids will remain a crucial medicine for some patients.

Furthermore, while alternative pain management therapies may lessen opioid prescriptions, they do not address exploding methamphetamine addiction or other addiction crises leading to overdoses nationwide — even as a flood of funds pours in from the national and state level to fight these crises.

“Prescribers reached for opioids in larger and larger numbers not just because they were being fooled into doing so by these pharmaceutical companies, but because they work really well for a broad variety of ailments.”

— Dr. Leo Beletsky, Northeastern University

The Show-Me State’s refusal to expand Medicaid coverage to more people under the Affordable Care Act also hampers overall progress, said Dr. Fred Rottnek, a family and addiction doctor who sits on the St. Louis Regional Health Commission as chair of the Provider Services Advisory Board.

“The problem is we relatively cover so few people in Missouri with Medicaid,” he said. “The denominator is so small that it doesn’t affect the numbers a whole lot.”

But providers like Mattox are happy that such alternative treatments are now an option, even if they’re available only for a limited audience.

He just wishes it had been done sooner.

“A lot of it has to do with politics and the slow gears of government,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s taken people dying — it’s taken enough of a crisis for people to open their eyes and say, ‘Maybe there’s a better way to do this.’”

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Many Alternative Therapies for Back Pain Not Covered

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A new study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has confirmed what many back pain sufferers already know: Public and private health insurance plans often do not cover non-drug alternative pain therapies.

Bloomberg researchers looked at dozens of Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurance coverage policies for chronic lower back pain and found that while most plans covered physical therapy and chiropractic care, there was little or no coverage for acupuncture, massage or counseling.

"This study reveals an important opportunity for insurers to broaden and standardize their coverage of non-drug pain treatments to encourage their use as safer alternatives to opioids," says senior author Caleb Alexander, MD, a professor of epidemiology at the Bloomberg School.  

Alexander and his colleagues examined 15 Medicaid, 15 Medicare Advantage and 15 major commercial insurer plans that were available in 16 states in 2017.

Most payers covered physical therapy (98%), occupational therapy (96%), and chiropractic care (89%), but coverage was inconsistent for many of the other therapies.

Acupuncture was covered by only five of the 45 insurance plans and only one plan covered therapeutic massage.

Nine of the Medicaid plans covered steroid injections, but only three covered psychological counseling.

"We were perplexed by the absence of coverage language on psychological interventions," Alexander says. "It's hard to imagine that insurers wouldn't cover that."  

Even for physical therapy, a well-established method for relieving lower back pain, insurance coverage was inconsistent.

"Some plans covered two visits, some six, some 12; some allowed you to refer yourself for treatment, while others required referral by a doctor," Alexander says. "That variation indicates a lack of consensus among insurers regarding what model coverage should be, or a lack of willingness to pay for it.”  

The Bloomberg study is being published online in the journal JAMA Network Open.  It was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

Lower back pain is the world’s leading cause of disability, but there is surprisingly little consensus on the best way to treat it. A recent series of reviews by an international team of experts in The Lancet medical journal found that low back pain is usually treated with bad advice, inappropriate tests, risky surgeries and painkillers.

“The majority of cases of low back pain respond to simple physical and psychological therapies that keep people active and enable them to stay at work,” said lead author Rachelle Buchbinder, PhD, a professor at Monash University in Australia. “Often, however, it is more aggressive treatments of dubious benefit that are promoted and reimbursed.”

The authors recommend counseling, exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy as first-line treatments for short-term low back pain, followed by spinal manipulation, massage, acupuncture, meditation and yoga as second line treatments. They found limited evidence to support the use of opioids for low back pain, and epidural steroid injections and acetaminophen (paracetamol) are not recommended at all.

Learning About Back Pain Helps Reduce It

By Steve Weakley

A new study published in JAMA Neurology shows that learning about the neuroscience of pain may help relieve some of it. 

Researchers have long understood that pain sensitivity varies from patient to patient, and there is a complex relationship between the mind and the body that influences how we experience pain. To explore that connection, researchers in Belgium divided 120 patients with chronic back and neck pain into two groups. A control group was treated with commonly recommended physical therapy and exercises.

The second group went through a program of “neuroscience education therapy,” in which they were given a very detailed explanation of what happens to the nervous system during chronic pain. Patients learned how neurons and synapses work, and how pain signals travel through nerve fibers, to the spinal cord and then the brain.

They were also taught the importance of self-care, ergonomics, stretching and fitness.

The patients were then given a series of challenging movements and exercises that gradually became more difficult and painful. They were encouraged to push through their pain, continue exercising and concentrate on functionality, not pain relief.

Treatment in both groups lasted three months, and the patients were re-evaluated after six months and a year. 

Researchers say patients in the neuroscience therapy group showed markedly more progress than the control group.  They had significant improvement in their disability, a higher pain threshold, improved physical and mental functioning, and 50 percent less self-reported pain than the control group. That improvement continued even after one year.

“These positive effects can be attributed to the content of the experimental treatment as participants learn to put pain into the right perspective, to move regularly, and to be physically active. Consequently, participants probably feel empowered, whereas, previously, they viewed pain as a life-controlling factor,” researchers found.  

“The main message is: Don’t be afraid of the pain,” lead author Anneleen Malfliet told The New York Times. “We know that worrying and giving attention to pain ultimately increases it. Staying active and moving is better than rest when it comes to chronic back and neck pain.”

Low back pain is the most common cause of disability worldwide and it is the most often cited reason for missed work in the United States.  More than half of all working Americans experience back pain each year.

Physical Therapy for Back Pain Lowers Healthcare Costs

By Pat Anson, Editor

If you have lower back pain and get it treated with physical therapy first, you are significantly less likely to later need opioid medication or high cost medical services, according to a new study in Health Services Research.

Researchers at the University of Washington and George Washington University analyzed health insurance claims for over 50 million people from 2009 to 2013, tracking patients who had a new diagnosis of lower back pain.

Compared with patients who saw a physical therapist later or not at all, those who saw a physical therapist first had an 89% lower probability of having an opioid prescription, a 28% lower probability of having an MRI or advanced imaging, and a 15% lower probability of having an emergency department visit. Their healthcare costs were also significantly lower for out-patient care, pharmacy and out-of-pocket expenses.

“We found important relationships among physical therapy intervention, utilization, and cost of services and the effect on opioid prescriptions," said co-author Ken Harwood, PT, a professor of physical therapy at George Washington University.

One unexpected finding is that patients who had physical therapy first had a 19% greater chance of being hospitalized.

“Having an in-patient hospitalization is not necessarily a bad outcome for a patient. PTs (physical therapists) provide care that aims to resolve LBP (lower back pain) by addressing musculoskeletal causes first, but if the problem does not get resolved, PTs may refer patients appropriately for more specialized care,” the study found.

One out of every four Americans will experience at least one day of lower back pain every three months. Researchers say about half will be treated with opioid medication, while physical therapy (12%), exercise (19%) and psychological therapy (8%) will be recommended far less often.    

"Given our findings in light of the national opioid crisis, state policymakers, insurers, and providers may want to review current policies and reduce barriers to early and frequent access to physical therapists as well as to educate patients about the potential benefits of seeing a physical therapist first," said lead author Bianca Frogner, PhD, a professor and health economist at the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies.

Lower back pain is the world’s leading cause of disability, affecting about 540 million people at any given time. But there is little consensus on the best way to treat it.

A recent series of reviews appearing in The Lancet medical journal found that lower back pain is usually treated with inappropriate tests, risky surgeries and painkillers.

“The majority of cases of low back pain respond to simple physical and psychological therapies that keep people active and enable them to stay at work,” said lead author Professor Rachelle Buchbinder of Monash University in Australia. “Often, however, it is more aggressive treatments of dubious benefit that are promoted and reimbursed.”

4 P’s That Can Help Lower Pain Levels

By Barby Ingle, Columnist

Having lived with chronic pain for 21 years -- with diagnoses such as arthritis, TMJ disorder, endometriosis, hypothyroid, ischemia, seizures, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) and thoracic outlet syndrome -- I know what life with a chronic condition is like.

I have tried many different treatment options, yet still have not found “the cure.” That doesn’t mean I have stopped looking. As part of my continuing alphabet series on alternative pain treatments, this month I am covering 4 P’s of pain management: physical therapy, pain medications, prolotherapy and psychology. 

Physical Therapy

Also known as PT and physiotherapy, physical therapy uses movement through manual therapy, exercise, and electro-therapy to improve range of motion, mobility, function and daily living.

Used incorrectly, physical therapy can be harmful. It is very important to get a physical therapist that understands your health condition, knows when to push you and when to hold you back, and can teach you exercises you can learn to do independently.

A good physical therapist will do research on your condition and help educate you about your body’s limits and potential for improvement. They will also be in regular contact with your doctor and other healthcare providers.

Due to insurance practices in the United States, the number of physical therapy sessions is often limited and rarely lasts throughout a chronic illness. But many of the techniques can be continued at home on the patient’s time, once they learn how to do them properly.

When I first started physical therapy, I did all of the wrong exercises because my therapist didn’t know or understand the conditions I have. My mentality at the time was no pain no gain, so we both over-worked me. It made things far worse than if had I done nothing in the first place.

Once I was with the right physical therapist, I began to see improvements in my daily function. We learned together it wasn’t about pushing my limits, but more about working as a team to find ways around the physical limitations I had.

Pain Medication

When the average person hears the words “pain medication” they often think about opioids. But there are a many different types of pain medication available, including medical cannabis, NSAIDs, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, alcohol, kratom, cox-2 inhibitors, and muscle relaxers.

Based on my speaking with medical professionals and researchers, I believe that all options -- including opioids -- should be on the table when a provider is deciding what is best for the patient.

I have heard from thousands of patients (of the millions who use opioids daily) who swear by two things. First, they have no other treatment option due to access or cost.  Second, there is no other treatment option that works as well as opioid medication.

I know that the evidence is weak on the long-term use of opioids. Every test, assessment and research study can be torn apart by opioid critics. But for me, it all comes down to this: If I have something that helps me function better and live a better quality of life, I want to have access to it. I have lost many friends to suicide due to uncontrolled pain and a few to addiction.

Opioids are not typically the first line of treatment. More and more, due to insurance company policies, guidelines and legislation, pain patients will get acetaminophen or NSAIDs, or be given nerve blocks, spinal injections or some other invasive procedure. Opioid medications are far less prescribed than they used to be. And many patients can’t get them at all.

Doctors are now being taught in medical school that what they prescribe should be determined by the type of pain someone has. For neuropathic pain, they are taught that traditional analgesics are less effective. Therefore, many providers will prescribe tricyclic antidepressants and anticonvulsants for nerve pain. And they will use topical NSAIDs creams and ointments for muscle sprains and overuse injuries.

Prolotherapy

Prolotherapy is an injection-based treatment used for pain conditions that involve musculoskeletal disorders, such as low back pain, tendonitis and knee osteoarthritis.

The injection is typically administered where joints and tendons connect to bone.  In theory, the injection creates an irritation to the injured area that helps stimulate healing. This technique that has been practiced since Roman times, when they used hot needles on gladiator injuries to promote healing.

Patients may report mild pain and irritation at the injection site, which usually goes away within 72 hours. They also may report numbness or minor bleeding right after the injection. There have been cases of disc and spinal injuries reported.

I used to hear a lot about prolotherapy 10-15 years ago, but I hear less and less about it now, as it is not typically used to treat nerve diseases. It is also not well reimbursed by insurance companies and Medicare has decided not to cover prolotherapy injections for low back pain at all.

Psychology

Psychology is used to help prevent the reliving of psychological distress or dysfunction, and to promote positive thoughts, well-being and personal skills. Psychology should not to be confused with psychiatry, which is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of mental disorders.

I have undergone psychological counseling in both group and individual settings over the years. The time when I found it most helpful was before I finally got a proper diagnosis of RSD and started infusion therapy. At the time, I was beginning to feel like a guinea pig. Some providers didn’t know what to do with me and having a psychologist providing support and making sure my mental attributes were strong was very helpful. 

I still use some of the mindfulness techniques he taught me to this day. When I was getting ready for infusion therapy, I felt like I had tried every treatment available on earth. Having a professional psychologist to speak with and go over what happens if the infusion didn’t work prepared me for a worst-case outcome.

Luckily, I didn’t need it, but it did teach me that even though I felt like I had tried everything, there are always new options being created and that I had not actually tried everything.

This is one of the reasons I am so sure that the alternative treatments I have been presenting over the last 8 months are helpful to others. I never realized until I did the research that there are so many different things to try. Using a multi-modal approach to pain and understanding that the mind, body and spirit connection are real is important not to neglect.

There were times when my providers suggested that I go to a psychologist, and other times when I had to get psychological clearance for different procedures. I found that when I went to a session, I felt better about myself. It was "me time" -- a time to focus on getting through the depression and anxiety of living with a chronic illness.

I learned that chronic pain affects our brains and causes depression and anxiety, and that it was not the other way around. That there are tools and medications to address them, and that knowing myself and what is going on with my health was one of the best ways to get past the depression and anxiety.

Psychologists gave me aptitude tests to check my general knowledge, verbal skills, memory, attention, reasoning, and perception. A few also gave me personality and neuropsychological tests. The more I learned about myself, the better I was able to navigate through chronic illness, the people around me, and the better relationships I was able to achieve.

I once again look forward to reading your comments. What treatments have you tried, what has worked, and what didn’t work? What tips do you have to pass on to other readers? Have you found the treatment protocol that works for you?

I personally don’t believe that there is a magic pill or procedure that can cure chronic pain - yet. I also strongly believe that the patient and their providers should be making the decisions for what is best for the patient.

Barby Ingle lives with reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), migralepsy and endometriosis. Barby is a chronic pain educator, patient advocate, and president of the International Pain Foundation. She is also a motivational speaker and best-selling author on pain topics.

More information about Barby can be found at her website. 

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.

How to Successfully Use Manual Therapy with EDS

By Ellen Lenox Smith, Columnist

There are two types of physical therapy to consider. The traditional type includes ice, hot packs, ultrasound and exercises. With this type, the physical therapist is not touching you.

But for those of us living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), the second type of physical therapy, called manual therapy, is much safer. You lie on a table for a hands-on approach, and the physical therapist has specific techniques to reduce the muscles spasms and realign the bones through touching the patient. It’s similar, but not the same as massage or a chiropractic adjustment.

In EDS sufferers, when our muscles go into spasm, we feel a lot of discomfort and pain, and our joints can shift out of position, causing what is called subluxations.

Even simple tasks like sleeping in a bad position or picking up groceries can cause this. Our poor muscles spasm easily because they are overworked from taking on the job of our ligaments and tendons, which are weakened by our collagen disorder.

We need to realign the joints and return them to their correct position, which then reduces the muscle spasms.

When this is done by a manual physical therapist or chiropractor, then exercising will not hurt so much. Treatment of the muscles repositions the joints and calms the muscle spasms down.

But you also need to understand that your muscles will return to those spasms if another step is not taken after manual therapy.

You need to do specific exercises to strengthen the muscles that were causing the problem. If you just put the joint back into position without strengthening the muscles around it, you will leave the joints weak and susceptible to the same forces that could pull them back out again. If you strengthen the muscles, the joints will not shift out of position so easily. The exercises should begin as soon as the manual therapy appointment is over.

Also, when you have any cranial or myofascial release work done, the process literally puts your muscles into a calmer, sleeping mode. Before leaving the office, you need to reactivate and wake those muscles back up or you will find your joints will potentially slip back out again.

I went to manual therapy for years and never understood why I kept slipping right apart. I would walk out feeling so relaxed and calm and then, sometimes in the car ride home, things would start to shift out of position. Now I take a few minutes to wake up and reactivate the muscles and find the body will hold much longer.

This is a simple procedure that your provider should be able to show you how to do. It makes all the difference in the world. I recommend Kevin Muldowney’s book, Living Life to the Fullest with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome for proper guidance on these exercises.

Strengthening the muscles is a must after manual therapy or the spasms will return. If you fail to discipline yourself and do your exercises, you can’t expect your provider to develop and assist you in executing a successful treatment plan.

It reminds me of the time my neck was fused. On day three in the hospital, I received an email of instructions from my surgeon. He clearly stated that he had now accomplished his job with the surgery and it was up to me to get out of bed, start walking, and take on the responsibility of helping myself heal and strengthen. It is often difficult for us to accept that we bear the lion's share of the responsibility in any successful treatment plan, but we do!

Ellen Lenox Smith suffers from Ehlers Danlos syndrome and sarcoidosis. Ellen and her husband Stuart live in Rhode Island. They are co-directors for medical marijuana advocacy for the U.S. Pain Foundation and serve as board members for the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition.

For more information about medical marijuana, visit their website.

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.

How I Use Exercise to Manage Chronic Pain

By Fred Kaeser, Guest Columnist

My dilemma may not be yours. I can only speak for myself. But when my intermittent severe pain became everyday severe pain, I felt I had a choice to make. Find a doctor that would prescribe me enough opioids everyday so that my horrible pain could be reduced considerably… or…decide that the risks of using opioids on a regular, constant basis outweigh the benefits.

When making this risk-benefit analysis, I needed to explore as best I could the empirical evidence on both sides of the opioid debate. Just as important, I needed to look at the evidence concerning alternative pain management strategies such as exercise, physical therapy, nutrition, yoga, mindfulness visualizations, and the like.

I am 63 years old and am in severe pain on an everyday basis. I have severe cervical spinal stenosis, multiple osteophytes impinging on my thecal cord, severe spondylosis, and multiple discs that have been severely compromised. I have osteoarthritis throughout my body. My hips have been replaced and one will need revision surgery fairly soon. My knees are shot. My lumbar spine is not as bad as my cervical, but multiple discs are herniated, the stenosis is in the moderate range.

I have crawled around on the floor many times for days and even weeks at a time since I was 25. I also have intermittent, but infrequent bouts of intercostal neuralgia, where it feels like the left side of my ribs are on fire. But without question, my cervical spine is the worst of them all.

      fred kaeser

I was determined to be an educated consumer in my quest to relieve pain, but time was of the essence. It’s brutal being in constant severe pain. It not only hurts, it’s exhausting. Fighting the hurt, trying to stay positive, trying to do your daily stuff, trying to be friendly, just trying to smile becomes harder and harder. .

I had done enough periodic trials of opioids to know several things. They work. But then at a certain point they don’t work as well. Even upping the dosage works for only so long. I can take an opioid for breakthrough pain or an extended release opioid, but the weird haze I’d get, the strange cloudy, foggy feelings I have, I never felt normal doing them.

I mean, is that what I want to feel like for years to come? I hate the pain, but the opioid cloud from any extended use I hate also. And the risks: tolerance, dependence, respiratory distress, sexual disruption, and constipation. That last one can be a bitch. I didn’t want to live in pain. but I didn’t want the risks and that overall crap feeling that opioids presented me. So the search for alternative pain therapies was on.

Let me first say I had to have the right attitude. “Stinkin-thinkin” is out, or as my meditation expert friend says, “If you “awful-ize” regularly you will feel awful.” I cannot emphasize enough the benefit of staying upbeat. I’m not stupid, I get it. You feel horrible, you feel like crap, you want to crawl out of your skin. But I have a choice; get swallowed up in negative thoughts and that is where I’ll stay, or stay as positive as I can and that is where I’ll stay. Not easy by any means, but it is the only means for me.

I was always athletic but I smoked. Smoked from 24 years of age to 56. That had to stop. When I had my second hip replacement I said I would quit right as I entered the hospital. I did and I could write a book on that fun trip.

I knew my diet would have to change. Didn’t want anymore extra weight and I knew I needed to increase my intake of foods that reduce inflammation. I love hot peppers, love those oily fish, those greens like spinach, kale, collard greens, those whole grains, and those almonds (but gotta watch the calories).

It took hard work to stop smoking and change my diet. And there was still a whole bunch more to come. I wanted to exercise more, I wanted to do my physical therapy exercises and stretches regularly, I wanted to give basic yoga posturing a try, I wanted to do some sort of meditation/positive visualizing practice.

I had read about all the benefits these could offer and I also knew it wouldn’t come quick. THIS IS THE HARD PART. I knew I would have to stick with it. I know too many people who say they’re going to make changes in their health status and do not stick with it. They’re in abundance after all those New Year’s resolutions every January, right? I’ve been one of them any number of times! It’s much easier to stop all the hard work and a whole lot easier to just take the pills.

But not this time. I knew that if my chosen alternative pain strategies were to work, I would have to be loyal to them and I would have to give them time. A lot of time, like 3-6 months of everyday, regular time. I have a family, I was working, I had all the stuff that comes with life, and now I had to fit a bunch more things in. I had to get up earlier than before, I had to spend an hour and half to two hours at night after work doing things I hadn’t before, and I had to fit these things into my weekends as well.

My Exercise Regimen

I had a YMCA membership and it’s amazing how many free or very low cost add-ons they provide. Yoga was free. Fairly low cost trainer sessions. My insurance covered a certain amount of physical therapy. A colleague-friend at work was a meditation expert. I get a lot of free senior citizen exercise and healthy activity benefits from the town I live in.

I started an exercise regimen that included cardiopulmonary exercise, weight training, and core exercise. I do an hour and half a day, 6 days a week. The myriad PT exercises and stretches I learned had to be done every day, 7 days a week as well. I don’t do all I know every time, but I usually spend about 20 minutes to a half hour on these.

The meditation/visualization I do is a form of guided imagery. Real easy to learn and real calming to do. I conjure peaceful, beautiful images for a 15 minute period in the morning and before bed I do 15 minutes of a mindfulness type experience where I am aware of positive thoughts, feelings, and images. I try to put my pain into a corner and focus on just the other things.

The yoga may give me the most benefits. I just do poses and stretches. I incorporate most of them in my daily workout routine and at times combine them with my PT work. All nothing real fancy, or too in-depth, but just enough of the basics to really help.

I lost count how many times I would bitch and complain in the beginning. How many times did I feel all this stuff was a waste? How many times would I curse them? How many times my pain hurt when I did them? How many times was my pain worse right after them? How many times did I want to give up? How many times did I want to just take the opioids? The answers: MANY!

A month went by…two months…three months…and I started to actually feel better. My pain was being mitigated. Six months and they worked even better. And now, almost 7 years later, they work better than ever. And my opioids? I am prescribed oxycodone, but I only take it every other day or every two days. I try to allocate myself no more than 10 pills a week.

Do I still have pain? Yep. Do the opioids help? Yep. In fact, when I take them they work as effectively as the first day I started taking them. I know I could easily do more and, considering the level of pain I have, they are easily warranted. But my pain is mitigated by my alternative pain management and my opioid use is minimized.

Just as important, there has been another benefit. The cervical spine surgery that I should be eligible for I don’t have to do because my functioning is normal. You don’t do this surgery unless your functionality suffers considerably.  Removing 2-3 discs, shaving down multiple osteophytes, and fusing 3-4 vertebras pose considerable post-op risks and perhaps even more pain. I’ve been told that my function is so good because of all the exercises I do, so no surgery for now.

Like I said, I can only speak for myself. But I have found a very effective balance to mitigating my pain through alternative pain management and the limited use of opioids. I still have pain every day but I manage it with a lot of hard work.

I know there are many people out there that must take opioids every day. And they should be provided with them. But I felt that I would be cheating myself if I didn’t do my best to mitigate my pain through alternative means.

I always have to be honest with myself. Am I doing all I can to ease my pain other than by taking opioid medication?

Fred Kaeser, Ed.D, is the former Director of Health for the NYC Public Schools. He taught at New York University and is the author of "What Your Child Needs to Know About Sex (and When): A Straight Talking Guide for Parents." Fred enjoys exercising, perennial gardens, and fishing.

Pain News Network invites other readers to share their stories with us. 

Send them to:  editor@PainNewsNetwork.org.

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represent the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.

Physical Therapy vs. Surgery for Spinal Stenosis

By Pat Anson, Editor

Physical therapy works just as well as surgery in relieving pain and other symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis in older patients, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.

Their two year-year study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is believed to be the first that compares outcomes between surgery and physical therapy (PT) for spinal stenosis, a condition caused by narrowing of the spinal canal that causes pain, numbness and weakness in the lower back.  Decompression surgery to relieve pressure on spinal nerves has become a fast-growing intervention in today's older population.

"Probably the biggest point to put across to physicians, patients and practitioners is: Patients don't exhaust all of their non-surgical options before they consent to surgery. And physical therapy is one of their non-surgical options," said principal investigator Anthony Delitto, PhD, chair of the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.

Delitto, a physical therapist, was puzzled why some patients responded well to physical therapy  and others to surgery.

In his study, 169 patients aged 50 and older with spinal stenosis agreed to be randomly assigned to two groups: Those who would have decompression surgery and those who would have two standardized physical therapy sessions each week for six weeks.

In his study, 169 patients aged 50 and older with spinal stenosis agreed to be randomly assigned to two groups: Those who would have decompression surgery and those who would have two standardized physical therapy sessions each week for six weeks.

After both groups were re-examined at intervals of six months, one year and two years, the patient outcomes appeared to be about equal. There were no detectable differences between the groups in how their pain abated and the degree to which function was restored in their backs, buttocks and legs.

"The idea we had was to really test the two approaches head to head," said Delitto. "Both groups improved, and they improved to the same degree. Now, embedded in that, there are patients who did well in surgery, and patients who failed in surgery. There are patients who did well in PT, and there are patients who failed with PT. But when we looked across the board at all of those groups, their success and failure rates were about the same."

The research project also revealed issues surrounding physical therapy and the cost of co-pay – which apparently discourage some patients from continuing their treatment.

"One of the big things that we know held patients back from PT were co-payments," Dr. Delitto added. "Patients were on Medicare, and a lot of them were on fixed incomes. Some of those co-payments had to come out of pocket at $25, $30, $35 per visit. That adds up, and some of the patients just couldn't afford it."

Most patients didn't finish the PT regimen allowed under Medicare and one-third of the patients failed to complete even half of the regimen. About one in six didn't show for a single treatment, though they had agreed to consider physical therapy.