Treatment resistant back pain is one of the main perpetuators of the epidemic of chronic dorsalgia in the modern medical establishment. Many people endure back symptoms that do not respond to conservative or even drastic therapy options. These poor patients suffer from a variety of back ache that hangs around for months, years or even an entire lifetime.
Despite the best efforts of care providers, this type of relentless back pain can drain the life, health and hope from its victim, since chronic pain is both a physically and emotionally affective condition.
Back ache is rarely easily cured. Statistics show that many more patients continue to suffer than ever recover if their symptoms last longer than 6 to 12 months. By nature, most people consider back ache to be treatment-defiant due to the actual structural issues involved in causing the pain. This is rarely the case. Sure, anatomical concerns can source pain. However, the body is incredibly adept at healing itself and medical science is very good at successfully treating conditions which are correctly identified as the true underlying reason for pain. However, most patients still never find back pain relief.
Why does treatment-resistant back pain occur? Why does it seem so nearly impossible to be pain-free once and for all?
Treatment Resistant Back Pain Explanations
There is really only 2 primary logical causes for treatment-resistant back problems to occur:
Serious structural problems with the spinal anatomy can enact pain which just might never heal. These cases are not common, since the body’s main function is to heal itself, even from catastrophic trauma. This type of condition can be the result of some disease processes, but is more often due to extreme back injury.
Some particularly bad injuries leave the spine unstable and set the stage for years of future chronic pain. Often, the symptoms come from a combination of causative conditions in the back. A severe injury can cause muscle, bone, disc, ligament and tendon damage that might be difficult to completely repair, even with appropriate surgery. Even if one or more conditions are corrected, the others may continue to cause pain. This is the unfortunate effect of massive trauma.
Misdiagnosis of the actual problem is the other major origin for unresponsive pain. This is the most common reason for treatment-resistant back ache to occur. The care provider will often discover a spinal abnormality during the diagnostic process and blame the symptoms on that coincidental structural condition.
A conservative treatment protocol is set up, but is bound to fail, since it is not directed at the actual source of pain. Treatment options will become increasingly drastic and often culminate with back surgery. Unfortunately for the poor patient, the true cause of their treatment resistant back pain was never discovered. Even after such an invasive surgical treatment, they are still likely to suffer from old and possibly new expressions of agony. Remember, if the treatment is not targeting the actual cause, then it has little or no chance of success. The patient might be sentenced to a life-long condition of torment.
Treatment Resistant Back Pain Due to Misdiagnosis
Due to the complicated anatomy of the spine, structural misdiagnosis is a common problem. Back ache might come from any number of sources including nerves, bones, discs, muscles, ligaments or tendons. The pain might appear to come from a particular irregularity or injury, while all the while it is caused by another. Many sources of chronic pain are not obvious and many obvious structural issues do not cause pain.
A very common misdiagnosis of unresolved back pain is due to psychoemotional causative issues. Psychological back pain is almost never diagnosed, yet it accounts for a substantial percent of all dorsopathy complaints. Most treatment providers are simply not trained to diagnose psychosomatic pain. Therefore, the patient is doubly the victim. They must suffer from horrible and unrelenting misery and have no hope for recovery, since their doctor is completely missing the actual cause of their pain.
Dr. John E. Sarno is the authority on these types of mistaken structural diagnoses which actually help to facilitate the continuation of psychologically-induced symptoms. For readers who are interested in this topic, I always recommend his books as the best on the subject. They will change your perception of back ache and how it is diagnosed and treated in the modern healthcare system, for sure.
Our proprietary back pain relief program explains why many conditions are not actually treatment-resistant, but instead are merely being treated incorrectly. This is why tour program works well for so many people, since it offers a universally beneficial approach to back pain care that is lacking elsewhere.
Back Pain Persists Despite Treatment
If you are one of the unfortunate few who have suffered massive trauma causing your chronic back pain, my heart goes out to you. Do not give up. There is constant innovation and new research in the field of back care that may offer new treatment options for you. With each new breakthrough in care protocols, millions of patients can potentially find better symptomatic management and possibly even the hope for a true cure. Even if your condition will never improve, there is sure to be methods of pain management that may work well for you.
Remember also that there are many approaches to back pain treatment and you might have only considered a few with many more which may provide good results. Always take time to research your considerable number of choices to provide yourself with the most effectual modalities for your particular condition. Your doctor will be happy to help.
If you have been actively treating the same condition for a long time without success, it may very well be time for a second opinion from another doctor. There is certainly no harm in this and you might be surprised how a different care provider can shed new light on your hope for recovery. This way all your bases are covered.
If your treatment resistant back pain is indeed from a physical cause, the other doctor might find something your present physician has missed. If the new doctor is a mindbody practitioner, then they might be able to recognize the possible emotional causes and contributors which are barring you from getting truly better.
I completely understand your frustration from dealing with therapy-resistant symptoms. Is this suffering all that life holds? I hope not. Not for you and not for me. However, we must make the best of our journeys, treatment-resistant pain notwithstanding. After all, we only have this one life to live.
Back Pain > Back Pain Epidemic > Treatment Resistant Back Pain
