What expectations do you have of your
New Roads chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research
is reporting that it has a role in back pain treatment outcome whether that treatment is surgical or conservative. New Roads Chiropractic Center intends
to listen to you and your expectations of our New Roads back
pain treatment and present the outcomes of our treatment
documented in practice and in
research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A recent research project examined
patient and surgeon expectations of back surgery. Patients expected complete
relief and improvement of their back pain after lumbar spine surgery. Surgeons
expected improvement that varied from a little to a lot depending
on the patient and his/her specific condition. Whose
expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. A couple years after the back surgery, the patient-reported outcomes met the surgeon’s expectations.
The researchers emphasized that effective communication about expectations
may well advance better outcomes. (1) That’s
why New Roads Chiropractic Center spends time with each New Roads
back pain patient early on in care, making sure the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-explained.
If not, tell us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If a patient doesn’t get
the relief he/she wanted from back surgery,
what is an “acceptable symptom state” for that back pain patient? What can he/she live with? For patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (with or
without active discopathy), 54% stated having an acceptable symptom
state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms involved
these: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for
disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) New Roads Chiropractic Center realizes no pain is the preferred state and is ready to discuss
with our New Roads chiropractic patients their options and possible
outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
Deciding
whether to have back surgery is a big decision. Evidence-based medicine views
the patient as being the center of care. What is
the patient perspective of this care? How is the patient perspective regarded in treatment planning and decision making
among available options? A recent paper pointed
out that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical
characteristics must be taken into account in planning care. (3)
One issue in the back-surgery decision that reportedly influences
the decision and the outcome expectation is opioid use. Lower dose and shorter-time-taking
opioid use patients expected more complete improvement compared
with non-users. They also had higher
expectations of positive outcome than higher-dose opioid patients. (4) For many patients, the prospect of work is goal of back pain treatment which is positive
according to this new report on how back pain patient recovery
expectations sway clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) New Roads Chiropractic Center uses
effective, nonsurgical care of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is presented and understood. New Roads chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT New Roads Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he described how Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment assisted
in the management of back pain for a patient who was adamant about not wanting back surgery.
Set your next New Roads
chiropractic visit today. New Roads Chiropractic Center wants to know your answer to the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied
with the outcome!