Empowered Beyond Pain - Episode 13: Low back pain fact 3 with Prof Rachelle Buchbinder: 'it's rarely associated with serious tissue damage'

Episode 13: Low back pain fact 3 with Prof Rachelle Buchbinder: 'it's rarely associated with serious tissue damage'

08/28/20 • 54 min

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder is a world-leading back pain clinician and researcher, today she discusses the current understanding and management of low back pain. Rachelle, who is a rheumatologist, clinical epidemiologist, and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow at Monash University in Melbourne was kind enough to have a conversation with Professor Peter O’Sullivan and Kevin Wernli. Rachelle led the distinguished low back pain series of research papers in the prestigious medical journal ‘The Lancet’ (https://www.thelancet.com/series/low-back-pain), a series that was highly publicised and highly regarded in the low back pain field. Rachelle has been at the forefront of promoting better, and eliminating wasteful, musculoskeletal pain management and has been tenacious in this endeavour.
Key take-homes were: Social sharing and mass media campaigns can be pivotal at moving the needle in a positive direction Vested and conflicts of interest are rife in the low back pain industry, presenting a big barrier for high-value care Back pain due to serious tissue damage is incredibly rare (less than 1% in primary care), but this doesn’t mean people can’t have serious pain. For the overwhelming majority, you don’t need imaging, it is safe to stay at work, and safe to keep moving, even if you have serious pain (which can be influenced by lots of different physical, emotional and lifestyle factors).
You can find the show notes at: www.bodylogic.physio/podcast which features over 20 references to the studies discussed in this episode!
Twitter handles: https://twitter.com/EBPPodcast https://twitter.com/RachelleBuchbin https://twitter.com/PeteOSullivanPT https://twitter.com/JPCaneiro https://twitter.com/KWernliPhysio *Peter O’Sullivan and JP Caneiro were awarded specialisation by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2005 and 2013 respectively. Theme music by Fervun and Cash. Produced by Kevin Wernli

Previous Episode

Update: Season 1 & fortnightly releases

We've made the decision to move to fortnightly releases. This is to give us a bit more breathing room between episodes so we can ensure we keep bringing you high-quality content. Let us know what you think via @EBPpodcast on social media. It'll also give you time to revisit some older episodes, or browse the show notes which are always packed full of resources, videos or infographics. www.bodylogic.physio/podcast It'll also give you more time to ask... is there more to pain than damage. Produced by Kevin Wernli

Next Episode

Episode 14: Low back pain fact 4 with patient voice, Joe. 'Scans rarely show the cause of pain'

How relevant are scans (MRI, CT, X-RAY etc) for low back pain? Imaging is commonplace these days, but is it actually doing more harm than good?
This week, patient voice Joe joins clinician-researchers Professor Peter O’Sullivan and Kevin Wernli as they discuss the evidence around imaging for low back pain. As well as the negative emotional and physical impact Joe's scan had on him - a common story among many with low back pain. The show-notes (www.bodylogic.physio/podcast) for this page share 3 imaging infographics, as well as links to all the references discussed in this episode.
Take homes were:
- Imaging is important, but only for ~5-10% with back pain
- Imaging findings are common in people without pain, and don’t predict future pain or function
- MRI reports don’t appear to be that consistent between MRI centres
- Routine imaging is not associated with better outcomes, and is in fact often harmful, not to mention costly.
Twitter handles @EBPPodcast @PeteOSullivanPT @JPCaneiro @KWernliPhysio
*Peter O’Sullivan and JP Caneiro were awarded specialisation by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2005 and 2013 respectively. Theme music by Fervun and Cash. Produced by Kevin Wernli