neck pain posts Archives

End Back Pain Forever: Chapter 2, part 5 #endbackpain

Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 10:00 AM  

In this next segment, I take Hans up on his offer to examine one of my patients. Read what happens next!

Click here for the Part 4 segment.

Chapter 2

You Are Not Alone: The Back Pain Epidemic (Part 5)

     Dr. Kraus and I met a week later at Lenox Hill. I had chosen a patient whom I shall call Beth. She was a forty-five year-old woman so defeated by pain after three unsuccessful spinal operations that she could no longer hold a job. Her life had revolved around her work, which was at the core of her sense of self. She was devastated. No one had found a truly successful treatment for her, and I did not believe that anyone could. She was on high doses of morphine, 60 milligrams orally five to six times a day, to relieve her pain.

After reviewing her case history, Dr. Kraus gave her a comprehensive and thoughtful mental and physical examination. Starting with her neck, he used his fingertips to palpate her muscles to distinguish between those that were supple and pain free and those that were stiff and painful. He found five pairs of painful muscles on both sides of the lower back, buttocks, and thighs.  “If these muscles are treated properly,” he told me, “it should reduce or eliminate her pain.” Read the rest of this entry

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End Back Pain Forever: Excerpts from Chapter 2 #endbackpain

Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 3:05 PM  

Chapter 2 of End Back Pain Forever delves into the ever-increasing problem of the back pain epidemic. Please review this blog for Chapters 1 and 2 from my book.

Chapter 2

You Are Not Alone: The Back Pain Epidemic

     If you suffer from back pain, you are not alone. The widespread failure by doctors to recognize muscles as the primary source of back pain is helping to fuel an epidemic. Back pain is now the most common disability in the United States. Every year twelve million Americans make new-patient visits to physicians for back pain and a reported one hundred million visits to chiropractors. At the current rate, eight out of ten Americans will experience back pain sometime during their lives.

In addition to the human suffering, medical costs are soaring. The cost of back pain, together with related neck pain, came to $86 billion in 2005, the most recent year for which figures were available. That was an increase of $34 billion from 1997. More amazingly, 25 percent of patients reported being significantly impaired, compared with 20 percent eight years earlier. Spending on back pain now equals the amount spent on cancer and is largely the result of failed surgeries, various nerve block procedures, and the cost of pain medications. We are spending more and getting worse results.

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Why do we over-prescribe strong pain medication?

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 at 10:01 AM  

The NY Times on 4/9/2012 ran a story about the overuse and unintended negative consequences of strong (opioid) pain medication. They mentioned opposing views concerning the liberal use of opioids. I participated in a debate in 1995 about the inappropriate use of the diagnosis “Chronic Pain Syndrome”(CPS) in patients whose muscles had not been assessed as a cause of their persistent pain, which resulted in the justification to put some of these patients on opioids for the rest of their lives.   

Since then one of the largest growth industries in medicine is the evaluation and treatment of back and neck pain, currently accounting for ~$100 billion in direct medical costs. The pain juggernaut is fueled in part by ignoring muscles which are the most common reason for pain complaints. Addressing the incorrect causes of pain leads to inappropriate, expensive and potentially harmful treatments with poor outcomes, persisitent pain, and overuse of opioids. CPS is a license to prescribe life-long medication. Chronic use of opioids has not been studied for its overall impact on patients with CPS but neither have any of the other medications that we are now using. Does the marginal reduction in pain in many of the patients taking these medications justify their costs and side effects? As the Times reports, for some patients the treatment is actually making them worse.

Imagine if some of these patients had pain that could be eliminated. Many do; it’s from muscles that are not evaluated or treated in a systematic way.  My new book, End Back Pain Forever, to be released by Atria on June 5, 2012 is a wakeup call to change the way we are treating common pain problems.

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How to decrease headache frequency

Thursday, June 9th, 2011 at 6:33 PM  

A recent study of a simple resistance exercise program for the neck and shoulders, in office workers who complained of weekly headaches (HAs), showed an approximately 50% reduction in HA frequency vs. a weekly health education control group. The exercise groups were 2 minutes or 12 minutes of daily exercise. The remaining HAs were no different in terms of intensity or duration of pain.

HAs are the most commonly reported pain problem. If brief exercise could have such a dramatic effect on HA frequency, it should be considered as a standard intervention for all office workers who appear to have muscle tension type headaches. However it is not clear why neck and shoulder exercise reduce HA frequency. It is understandable that exercising muscles that are tense and stiff from repetitive strain, for example bending your head and neck over a desk for hours at a time, could help relax stiff and tense muscles. which can cause back and neck pain.  But just performing an action to address HAs on a daily basis may make you more aware of the circumstances surrounding a headache episode. Since headaches are frequently brought on with emotional stress, being more aware of and addressing stress has been shown to reduce HA frequency through various interventions.
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Golfers with back pain

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 7:11 PM  

A golfing patient I treated originally came to me with low back pain and later with shoulder pain and neck pain- all preventing his inner champion from blossoming. Like so many golfers he had come to accept the suffering as part of the game. He was amazed to find that he could get rid of the back pain that had plagued him for years. He wrote about it in his blog today bit.ly/9aluAt

Thank you for the mention in your blog.

~ Norman Marcus, MD
Norman Marcus Pain Institute, New York NY
 
Your New York City Pain Relief Doctor”
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Source of your back, shoulder and neck pain

Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 7:12 PM  

A 35 year old executive complained of neck and shoulder pain radiating into his fingers along with difficulty using his fingers. His MRI showed bone spurs in his neck which were causing compression of the nerves going into his arm. A neurosurgeon had suggested that he have surgery to remove the spurs and to fuse the vertebra in his neck.

He was given cervical spine epidural steroids and after the 2nd injection his pain and difficulties in his hand were eliminated, but the pain in the region of his shoulder blade persisted. He felt that it was time to revisit the neurosurgeon, but I told him that pain only in the shoulder isn’t typical for a problem in the spine.
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If I get back pain will it go away?

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 7:22 PM  

Although Low Back Pain (LBP) is thought to affect around 80% of individuals, it is also thought to be self limiting and get better quickly (within weeks). Studies of patient populations however suggest that it is actually a more serious problem. Although most patients who experience back pain do not see a doctor, 60-80% of those that do are still reporting pain one year later and in those whose pain has disappeared, 20% will have a recurrence within months.
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Back Pain Treatment

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 7:27 PM  

Please refer back to the past two blogs to find the background material for todays blog. Although the number of CARF approved pain centers in the US halved, the number of outpatient pain centers mushroomed. The services provided however focused on two areas:

  1. Medication management
  2. Nerve blocks and other invasive procedures.

Although many patients could be helped with one or both of these approaches, many patients in need of physical therapy and psychological services that were integrated with the overall treatment plan, would no longer receive optimal treatment. Reimbursement would be the driver of care rather than the needs of the patient. Centers could not stay in business and provide care that insurance companies would not cover. The shift toward procedures became an accepted standard of care and new organizations of pain physicians were formed whose membership focused predominantly on invasive procedures.
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The Blog to Illuminate and Eliminate Chronic Pain

Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 11:55 PM  

It is my wish to inform patients and colleagues about the possibilities of eliminating pain even when it is thought to be permanent (chronic) or require an invasive proceedure such as surgery, nerve injections, spinal cord stimulation or a morphine pump to achieve any relief.

Our story begins with the recogniton that the current standard of care doesn’t work very well. An article in the Jouranl of the American Medical Association (JAMA), in February, 2008, by Martin, Deyo, et al.. reported that even though the cost of neck and low back pain in the USA increased from $26 billion in 1997 to $86 billion in 2005, there was no improvement in treatment outcome. $86 billion is also the amount we spend on cancer.

Actually patients were reporting that they were more impaired by neck and back pain in 2005 than in 1997. It appears that the reasons that we frequently offer to explain low back pain such as herniated discs, degenerated discs, arthritis, and spinal stenosis, are frequently wrong since treating these so called causes results in no, or partial, temporary improvement. What is missing from the published diagnosis and treatment guidelines for common pain problems such as low back, neck and shoulder pain, is any approach which addresses muscles as the primary source of pain.

In future postings we will look at some reasons why muscles are ignored and what you can do about it.

~ Norman Marcus, MD
Norman Marcus Pain Institute, New York NY
 
“Your New York City Pain Relief Doctor”
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