Ashburn and Herndon Chiropractic and Back Pain Relief Expectations via Surgical or Conservative Care
What expectations do you have of your chiropractic care of Ashburn and Herndon back pain? That question is huge. Research reports that that questions of expectations plays a role in back pain treatment outcome whether that treatment is surgical or conservative. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn aims to hear your expectations of our Ashburn and Herndon back pain treatment and share the outcomes of our treatment documented 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 varied from a little to a lot depending on the patient and his/her specific issues. 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 further better outcomes. (1) That’s why Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn devotes time to each Ashburn and Herndon back pain patient early on in care, making sure the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-explained. If not, tell us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If original patient expectations are not 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) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn realizes no pain is the preferred state and is prepared to talk with our Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic patients their options and possible outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
The question of back surgery is a big issue. 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 considered in treatment planning and decision making among available options? A new paper indicated that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical characteristics must be taken into account in planning care. (3) One issue 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 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 found that a patient’s recovery expectations are probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn applies effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain sufferers is described and understood. Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
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 adamant about not wanting back surgery.
Make your next Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic visit today. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn wants to know your answer to the question of your expectations for our treatment so that we can both be happy with the outcome!
