Low back pain is the most common symptom seen in primary care; the underlining injury is often enhanced by psychological and social stressors, write the authors of a Perspective published online by the Medical Journal of Australia.
Associate Professors Leigh Atkinson, from Wesley Pain and Spine Centre in Brisbane, and Andrew Zacest from Royal Adelaide Hospital wrote that patients often have high expectations from modern medicine and expect a surgical solution to their back pain.
They explained the high incidence of low back pain in developed countries is best understood in terms of a biopsychosocial framework, in which the pain from an injury is compounded by issues such as work dissatisfaction, family stress, depression and at times secondary gain.
