X-Rays, MRI Scans.... If you're a back pain sufferer and experiencing persistent (aka "chronic") pain, chances are you've been looking for answers, and oftentimes looking to imaging to provide these answers. However imaging is often not helpful and can sometimes be outright damaging to your chances of recovery.
Over 80% of persistent back pain cases are what's known as "non specific" - meaning the pain cannot be attributed to any specific tissue damage or injury.
Conversely, research has shown that in a "healthy" population who aren't experiencing pain, "abnormal" symptoms such as disc bulges, disc degeneration or arthritic changes to the spine, are incredibly common.
This can cause problems when back pain sufferers see "abnormal" results on a scan and relate this to their pain. It may well be that these "abnormalities" have no relation to their pain, but knowing of their presence can result in fear of movement and fear of making the pain worse; and can reinforce to the sufferer that they do have "something wrong" with their back. In fact, the very act of a clinician ordering imaging, can reinforce to a patient that something is structurally wrong.
This negative mindset has the potential to worsen pain symptoms, alongside the very real possibility of the sufferer avoiding exercise and movement - which is known to be one of, if not THE most effective treatment for back pain.
** Note: in a very small (around 1%) number of cases, there can be specific pathology and injury. Red flags to be aware of are loss of bladder/bowel function, sexual dysfunction and loss of function of lower limbs. In cases such as this, seek urgent medical attention.
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