Effectiveness of Physical Therapy for Back Pain

Back pain is among the most common reasons for visits to physicians and physical therapists and is the costliest health condition in the US. Twenty years ago, the scientific basis to guide decision-making on treatments for specific types of back pain was weak. Since then, Julie Fritz, PhD, and colleagues have conducted a series of rigorous randomized clinical trials examining patients with acute back pain, back pain accompanied by sciatica, and back pain due to spinal stenosis. Their recent study found that patients with back pain and sciatica who were referred to physical therapy for treatment with exercise and manual therapy were more likely to rate their treatment as successful and reported significantly greater reductions in pain and disability than patients who were not referred. These studies have defined effective physical therapy treatments for these conditions and facilitated clinical decision making and strategies to personalize physical therapy treatments.