Structure-oriented beliefs and disability due to back pain

The modern costly epidemic of disability due to back pain is considered to be effectively the result of various beliefs as to the cause, and therefore appropriate management, of this commonplace, generally benign and self-limiting symptom. Prominent is the belief that spontaneous or provoked pain is evidence of some problem with the structure of the spine. As such, along with therapeutic rest, the logical means of relieving pain would be with interventions which actually or purportedly influence structure. Evidence is discussed endorsing the existence, likely origins, potency, fallacy and dysfunctional consequences of this view in the context of the unique 20th Century phenomenon, chronic disability following non-specific back pain.