‘Normal activity’ recommended for back pain

July 5th, 2010

People with low back pain should stay active rather than remaining in bed, a new review has concluded.

The majority of doctors now advise patients to keep as active as possible and the latest review in the Cochrane Library supports that advice.

Researchers directly compared the effects of resting in bed and staying active by combining two previous Cochrane reviews from 2002 and 2004.

Patients suffering from low back pain without sciatica tended to experience improvements in pain intensity, regardless of whether they took bed rest or continued normal activity.

When patients who had been hospitalised for back pain during combat training were removed from the analysis, the researchers found that the remaining active patients experienced more significant reductions in pain and greater improvements in function than those who stayed in bed.

The researchers also looked at data on 348 patients whose back pain was accompanied by sciatica and found no difference in pain intensity or ability to function between those who kept active and those who stayed in bed.

“The available evidence neither supports nor refutes that advice to stay active is better than resting in bed for people with sciatica,” said Dr Kristin Thuve Dahm, who led the review at the Norwegian Centre for the Health Services.

“However, considering that bed rest is associated with potential harmful side-effects, we think it is reasonable to advise people with sciatica to stay active.”

Dr Dahm concluded: “Normal daily activity seems to be the best way for patients with low-back pain to get better.”

The researchers also noted that no clinical trials had looked at the relative effects of bed rest and normal activity on low back pain in recent years.

According to Dr Joel Press, professor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Feinberg Northwestern School of Medicine in Chicago, this shows that previous research had “already proved the point”.

He added: “Everyone is fairly convinced there’s not much benefit to bed rest. We’re almost always better moving than not moving.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 1:47 pm |

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