The Back Pain Industry: a Study in Symptomatic Treatment

The back pain industry is a multi-billion dollar a year medical specialty which is certainly one of the most profitable in the entire healthcare field.  Medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, complementary therapists, orthotic makers, surgical hardware manufacturers and especially pharmaceutical companies all stand to make vast fortunes from the suffering of countless lost souls.

Dorsopathy patients are some of the worst off among sufferers of all types of painful complaints.  These desperate individuals must try to live and function with symptoms which are known to be disabling and debilitating.  Regardless, they must work, raise families and strive to do their best, despite their chronic pain.  These patients rely on their healthcare providers to help them recover, but it is clear from the abysmal results offered from most back pain treatments that the back pain industry has truly dropped the ball.

 Research studies have conclusively demonstrated some very disturbing information about back pain diagnosis and subsequent treatment.  First off, people with acute back pain who seek no medical attention whatsoever are known to recover faster and more completely than patients who undergo any type of medical care.  Second, patients who receive medical care, but experience pain lasting for more than 6 months have a better chance of suffering life long symptoms than of ever recovering.  Last, the epidemic of back pain has grown to be one of the widest ranging of all health concerns, affecting up to 85% of adults at some point in their lives.

 In the meantime, doctors continue to develop new diagnoses and treatment modalities to explain what causes the pain and how to get rid of it.  There are dozens of diagnoses and hundreds of possible treatments.  Diagnostic eclecticism is rampant in the back pain industry and symptoms might be explained by several different causations if a patient is examined by multiple doctors.  Regardless of the time and effort doctors put into uncovering the structural causes of back pain, they have missed the point entirely.  Research has also proven the vital interactions between the mind and body and how these interactions cause, contribute or perpetuate back pain in most affected patients.  Doctors are very learned and well read.  They have seen the evidence but purposely ignore it, for accepting the possibility of a psycho-emotional process in the generation of physical back pain cuts into their economic bottom line and is therefore unacceptable doctrine.

Accepting a psychological influence in the realm of back pain means also accepting knowledge therapy as a viable treatment option.  This treatment is used at home, has no risks and is free of charge for any patient with access to a library.  Imagine the economic consequences to the back pain industry, if even half of the hundreds of millions of back pain patients were able to suddenly cure their own pain permanently in the safety and comfort of their own homes….This and only this factor will make medical acceptance of ischemic initiated psychosomatic dorsopathy an impossibility, at least within our lifetimes…

 Instead of actually helping patients by providing them with the complete picture when it comes to back pain, care providers typically only detail a limited and often inaccurate view.  Instead of being led towards a real cure, most patients are enslaved in a long term regimen of ongoing symptomatic therapy. The modalities only help the patient to cope with pain, by reducing the effects of the symptoms on their lives.  Symptomatic treatments do nothing at all to resolve the underlying causes of the pain, regardless of whether they are indeed caused by a structural spinal causation or a psychogenic phenomenon.  Symptomatic treatments are the industry standard because they create repeat customers and are very beneficial for the bank accounts of the care providers and medical corporations around the world.

The most common forms of symptomatic slavery for back pain include chiropractic adjustments, massages therapy treatments, acupuncture sessions, physical therapy appointments, exercise therapy routines, TENS treatments, hydrotherapy, spinal cord stimulation, epidural injections, botox therapy, nutritional supplements and the #1 choice of doctors and patients alike…pharmaceutical relief.  Yes, we are a society that accepts drugs as the preferred solution for every problem, despite the risks, side effects and extremely symptomatic nature of the therapy. There are few if any other options available from your local back pain specialist, regardless of which healing art they practice.  If you complain that treatment is getting you nowhere, you will likely be recommended for surgical intervention and then you are in for some real trouble. 

 In conclusion, as a former back pain sufferer with never ending devotion to my fellow patients, I am excited that knowledge therapy continues to be a popular choice in treatment options, despite the objection of the back pain industry as a whole.  Dr. John Sarno, of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine/NYU Medical Center in New York, has left a legacy which will outlive him or any of us, by giving patients the gift of this wonderful therapy option.  In addition, spinal decompression is another non-surgical treatment option which has broken the mold of the symptomatic old guard.  Although this treatment continues to embrace the often misdiagnosed nature of structurally induced back pain, at least it offers excellent permanent curative results and has a defined finite treatment duration and cost.  I am sure whomever invented this modality is viewed as a villain among the many doctors who continue to push patients, like lambs to the slaughter, into endless symptomatic bondage.