What expectations do you have of your
Richmond chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research
reports that it has a role in back pain treatment outcome be the
treatment surgical or conservative. Johnson Chiropractic intends
to listen to you and your expectations of our Richmond back
pain treatment and share what our treatment’s outcomes have been 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 full
relief and improvement of their back pain after lumbar spine surgery. Surgeons
expected improvement that varied from a little to a lot dependant on the patient and his/her specific condition. Whose
expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. A couple years after the back surgery, the outcomes
reported by patients met the surgeon’s expectations.
The researchers stressed that effective communication about expectations
may well further better outcomes. (1) That’s
why Johnson Chiropractic spends time with each Richmond
back pain patient early on in care, ensuring
that the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-explained.
If not, ask us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If original
patient expectations aren’t met with 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% reported having an acceptable symptom
state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms included: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for
disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) Johnson Chiropractic appreciates that no pain is the preferred state and is ready to discuss
with our Richmond chiropractic patients their options and potential
outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
The question of back surgery is a big issue. 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 taken
into consideration in treatment planning and choosing from available options? A new paper indicated that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical
characteristics must be considered in planning care. (3)
One issue in the back-surgery decision that reportedly impacts
the decision and the outcome expectation is opioid use. Lower dose and shorter-time-taking
opioid use patients expected more complete improvement opposed to 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 influence clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies reported that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Johnson Chiropractic uses
effective, nonsurgical care of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is described and understood. Richmond chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
Check out this PODCAST
with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he explained how Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment assisted
in the management of back pain for a patient who was absolutely
positive about not wanting back surgery.
Schedule your next Richmond
chiropractic visit soon. Johnson Chiropractic invites you to ponder and answer the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied
with the outcome!