Therapeutic approaches to low back pain

There has been a great deal of intelligent, insightful, and useful work conducted on understanding how individuals perceive pain; however, there remains a great deal more to be learned about how the complex interplay between pain and an individual's psychological and social experience affects the degree of suffering and disability associated with injury. Clinicians treating low back pain have an obligation to their patients to maintain an understanding of the ever-increasing amount of information available on spinal mechanics, pathophysiology, and diagnostic and treatment strategies. Clinicians have an equally important obligation in understanding the true role that pain is playing in their patients' lives. Clinical care of patients with spinal disorders needs to be directed towards optimizing function. In order to do this, it is essential to obtain the information needed to identify and overcome barriers to improvement, and to provide treatment in a compassionate, coordinated fashion that addresses the multidimensional needs of the individual.