[planetdoc]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

His back will never hold up. Bad investment. Back trouble never goes away.

wrong.

"I just had nothing more than back spasms," Albert said. "I tried to come back early and it flared up again. I haven't had any setbacks or things I couldn't do because of my back. That's the God's honest truth. If there was something wrong with my back, do you think the Chiefs would franchise me and give me $10 million?"

That wasnt an issue for him in 2013 based on his injury history.

from a review of literature from uptodate

The long-term outcome of low back pain is generally favorable. In one prospective study, 90 percent of patients seen for low back pain in primary care did not seek care after three months [20]. However, most patients were still experiencing low back pain, for which they did not seek care, one year after the initial episode.

Patients who have high expectations for recovery have better outcomes. A secondary analysis of a randomized trial comparing usual care to chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage in adults with acute low back pain showed that higher expectations for recovery were associated with greater functional improvement at 12 week follow-up [21]. MRI evaluation to provide reassurance, however, does not lead to better prognosis [22].

A longitudinal study of 973 primary care patients with recent onset low back pain found that 83 percent had mild or no pain and 86 percent had minimal or no disability at one year follow-up; however, only 72 percent had completely recovered [23]. It should be noted that cross-sectional sampling of patients from clinical practices over-represents patients with recurrent pain, and these findings may not be applicable to the general population with low back pain. Indeed, 75 percent of the patients in this study reported previous back pain episodes, 39 percent had previous sick leave for back pain, and 19 percent had been involved in compensation claims.

Psychosocial variables are stronger predictors of long-term disability than anatomic findings found on imaging studies. In a systematic review of 20 prospective studies in patients presenting with acute low back pain, predictors of disabling chronic low back pain at one year follow-up included maladaptive pain coping behaviors, functional impairment, poor general health status, presence of psychiatric comorbidities, or nonorganic signs