NICE guidelines explain the best treatment for back pain

The long awaited guidelines on treatment for back pain have been released by the National Institute of Clinical Effectiveness (NICE) in the UK (1). These guidelines tell us what back pain treatments should be tried and which should be avoided when managing lower back pain.

In this article

• About the guidelines
• Recommended treatment for back pain


• What to avoid when treating lower back pain


• Lumbar spine MRI scan and other tests

About the NICE guidelines for the treatment of back pain

NICE is a national body that examines the evidence for effectiveness and value for money for many common medical problems.

Up until now there has been little agreement about the best treatment of back pain. If you go and see different health care providers you will often get different information and care.  If you have experienced this I'm sure you would agree that this is confusing and unhelpful. To clear up confusion and help everyone get the best care the expert panel working for NICE looked at the research evidence for the treatment of back pain and agreed on a set of guidelines.  The results make very interesting reading and have caused quite a bit of a stir in the UK.

NOTE - These guidelines are only for those of you with non-specific lower back pain, they don’t cover sciatica or any other condition.  If you are unsure then there is more about the cause of back pain in this section where I have outlined the three main types.

ANOTHER NOTE - The other important thing to know is that they only cover sub-acute lower back pain. This means lower back pain that you have had for more than 6 weeks but less than one year.

Lower back pain treatment hub page

Lower Back Pain Toolkit Home Page

 References

1.         NICE Low back pain <http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG88>

September 24, 2012