Back Pain Overview
Updated December 29, 2014.
Back pain is one of the most common maladies in the US, with approximately 80% of people experiencing it at some time in their life. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, a federal agency concerned with safety and effectiveness in medicine), about 27 million adults reported having back problems in 2007.
It’s expensive, too. As far as costs go, back pain is surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.
The AHRQ says that in 2007 collective costs for back pain more than doubled since 2004, reaching over $30 billion per year in medical care and disability payments.
Occupational injury is a big contributor to the country's back pain woes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the US, there were approximately 195,000 work related back injuries in 2009, or about 6% of on the job injuries for that year.
Back pain can be categorized in a number of ways:
Acute or Chronic
Specific Back Pain or Non-Specific Back Pain
Specific back pain is back pain that is attributable to identifiable conditions such as those listed below. According to the National Pain Foundation, less than 15% of diagnosed back pain cases can be attributed to a particular cause.
Back Pain Conditions
Non-specific back pain might come from muscles or other vertebral structures. Often non-specific back pain responds well to conservative treatment. The National Pain Foundation (see footnote 18) has further subcategorized non-specific back pain by type of body system or process causing the pain:
Anatomical Region
Back pain can be divided up into locations along the spine. This is the way most non-medical people refer to their back pain concern. The most common terms for back pain based on anatomical location are:
Biblography
Back pain is one of the most common maladies in the US, with approximately 80% of people experiencing it at some time in their life. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, a federal agency concerned with safety and effectiveness in medicine), about 27 million adults reported having back problems in 2007.
It’s expensive, too. As far as costs go, back pain is surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.
The AHRQ says that in 2007 collective costs for back pain more than doubled since 2004, reaching over $30 billion per year in medical care and disability payments.
Occupational injury is a big contributor to the country's back pain woes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the US, there were approximately 195,000 work related back injuries in 2009, or about 6% of on the job injuries for that year.
Types of Back Pain
Back pain can be categorized in a number of ways:
Acute or Chronic
- Acute is a word used to describe an injury or illness that comes and goes. Acute injuries come on quickly, have very definite symptoms that can be quite intense and heal in a relatively brief period of time, usually around six weeks. Often, and unfortunately, acute injuries to the back or neck can be the precursor to chronic pain.
- Chronic pain is also referred to as persistent pain. Doctors generally categorize pain as chronic if the same type of pain in the same place has lasted more than three to six months.
Specific Back Pain or Non-Specific Back Pain
Specific back pain is back pain that is attributable to identifiable conditions such as those listed below. According to the National Pain Foundation, less than 15% of diagnosed back pain cases can be attributed to a particular cause.
Back Pain Conditions
- Cervical Spondylosis, or Arthritis of the Neck
- Spinal Stenosis
- Spondylolisthesis
- Cervical Kyphosis
- Scoliosis
- Kyphosis
- Whiplash Injury
Non-specific back pain might come from muscles or other vertebral structures. Often non-specific back pain responds well to conservative treatment. The National Pain Foundation (see footnote 18) has further subcategorized non-specific back pain by type of body system or process causing the pain:
- Musculoskeletal (includes all soft tissue)- Nocioceptive pain is caused when there is irritation to muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments and/or fascia. The presence of irritation causes the nervous system to send messages to the brain about damage to the soft tissue and bony structures. (It is about this time when your doctor suggests asprin to control inflammation.) The brain then responds by sending out chemicals meant to contain the damage. The brain also sends pain signals.
- Neuropathy means nerve pain. Neuropathy is a type of back pain that is caused by a pinched nerve or other radiculopathy. Examples of neuropathy include:
- Discogenic pain is pain from an intervertebral disk that does not cause neuropathy pain. That is, there is an interruption in the disk structure, but the nucleus pulposus has not caused nerve pain symptoms, such as numbness, tingling, parasthesia, etc.
Anatomical Region
Back pain can be divided up into locations along the spine. This is the way most non-medical people refer to their back pain concern. The most common terms for back pain based on anatomical location are:
Biblography
