Acute back pain: A control-group comparison of behavioral vs traditional management methods

Back-pain patients with onset in the preceding 1–10 days and comparable on a back examination were randomly assigned to traditional management (A regimen) and behavioral treatment methods (B regimen). Patients were compared at 6 weeks and 9–12 months on a set of Sick/Well scores derived from patient reported vocational status (V), health-care utilization (HCU), claimed impairment (CI), and pain drawings (D) and on two measures of activity level. No differences were found at 6 weeks, but at 9–12 months, A-group S's were more sick. No A/B differences were found on activity-level measures. Group A S's showed significant increases in claimed impairment from preonset to follow-up, whereas Group B S's had returned at follow-up to preonset levelsA special acknowledgment is made to Darnel Rock, M.S., now of the Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, for his major contributions to the organization and analysis of the data of this study.