New Australian treatment for chronic back pain

In news sure to be welcomed by the 4 million Australians who suffer back problems, Australian researchers have developed a revolutionary new treatment for chronic back pain without the need for drugs or surgery.

A study on the way the back and the brain communicate with one another by the University of New South Wales and Neuroscience Research Australia could help change the way people think about pain, how they process sensory information, and how they move.

The key is to retrain the sensorimotor, said Professor James McAuley from UNSW’s School of Health Sciences.

“What we observed in our trial was a clinically meaningful effect on pain intensity and a clinically meaningful effect on disability,” he said.

“People were happier, they reported their backs felt better and their quality of life was better.”

Professor McAuley added that the effects of the treatment are long-lasting, which makes it especially significant.

“It also looks like these effects were sustained over the long term,” he said. “Twice as many people were completely recovered. Very few treatments for low back pain show long-term benefits, but participants in the trial reported improved quality of life one year later.”

How the Australian treatment for chronic back pain works

The treatment involves retraining the brain by using education modules and sensorimotor retraining, which helps patients to correct the messages the back is sending the brain via the nervous system.

“People with back pain are often told their back is vulnerable and needs protecting,” said Professor McAuley. “This changes how we filter and interpret information from our back and how we move our back.

“Over time, the back becomes less fit, and the way the back and brain communicate is disrupted in ways that seem to reinforce the notion that the back is vulnerable and needs protecting. The treatment we devised aims to break this self-sustaining cycle.”

How effective is it?

The study is breaking exciting new ground in the treatment of chronic back pain, by looking at as a nervous system problem, rather than a disc, bone or muscle problem.

“If you compare the results to studies looking at opioid treatment versus placebo, the difference for that is less than one point out of 10 in pain intensity, it’s only short term and there is little improvement in disability,” said Professor McAuley. “We see similar results for studies comparing manual therapy to sham or exercise to sham.”

A sham treatment is one that a researcher performs on a test patient where they go through the motions but don’t provide actual treatment. Like a placebo drug, a sham treatment helps researchers to test the effectiveness of a treatment against psychological effects of having a treatment done.

“This is the first new treatment of its kind for back pain — which has been the number one cause of the global disability burden for the last 30 years — that has been tested against placebo,” said Professor McAuley.

How to access treatment

The treatment is expected to be available via trained physiotherapists, exercise physiologists and other clinicians within the next six to nine months.

If you are experiencing pain, you should speak to a doctor to find out the right treatment for you. You can request a telehealth consultation with one of our Australian-registered doctors from anywhere in Australia, seven days a week.

This article was written by Carolyn Tate, a Brisbane-based writer with a particular interest in women’s health, mental health and living well. Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Professional Writing and a Bachelor of Political Science.