What expectations do you have of your
Carrolltown chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research
is reporting that that questions of expectations plays
a role in back pain treatment outcome be the
treatment surgical or conservative. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation intends
to hear your expectations of our Carrolltown 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 scrutinized
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 ranged from a little to a lot depending
on the patient and his/her specific issues. Can you guess 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 stressed that effective communication about expectations
may well foster better outcomes. (1) That’s
why Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation spends time with each Carrolltown
back pain patient at the beginning of care, making sure 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) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation appreciates that no pain is the preferred state and is ready to talk
with our Carrolltown chiropractic patients their options and possible
outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
Deciding
whether to have back surgery is a big decision. Evidence-based medicine sees that the patient at 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 recent paper indicated that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical
characteristics must be considered in planning care. (3)
One factor 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 a
lot of patients, the prospect of work is a light at the end of the
tunnel which is encouraging
according to this new report on how back pain patient recovery
expectations affect clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation uses
effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is described and understood. Carrolltown chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation
Listen to 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 Carrolltown
chiropractic visit today. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation invites you to ponder and answer the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied
with the outcome!