Low back pain in family practice: a case control study

Eighty-three women between the ages of 25 and 44 years who presented with low back pain during a one-year period were compared with a control group of women matched by age and socioeconomic status. The patients with low back pain presented a larger number of problems to their family physicians during the course of the year, but there were no significant differences noted in the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression during their visits, or in the number of psychological problems presented by the two groups, or in the number of psychoactive medications received for problems other than low back pain. The results suggest that low back pain patients may represent a group who more readily present their symptoms to physicians but that they are no more likely to have psychological problems than similar patients who do not have low back pain.