Back pain and work
Low back pain is a leading cause of work disability and constitutes a significant socioeconomic burden worldwide. In an attempt to stem the serious consequences of long-term disability, a new…
Addressing patient beliefs and expectations in the consultation
In this article, we specifically focus on the identification and management of patient beliefs and expectations during consultations with health-care professionals (HCPs). In examination of the nature and purpose of…
How important are back pain beliefs and expectations for satisfactory recovery from back pain?
In this article, we provide an evidence-based review of pain beliefs and their influence on pain perception and response to treatment. We examine the nature of pain perception and the…
Treatment-based subgroups of low back pain: A guide to appraisal of research studies and a summary of current evidence
There has been a recent increase in research evaluating treatment-based subgroups of non-specific low back pain. The aim of these sub-classification schemes is to identify subgroups of patients who will…
Exercise therapy for chronic nonspecific low-back pain
Exercise therapy is the most widely used type of conservative treatment for low back pain. Systematic reviews have shown that exercise therapy is effective for chronic but not for acute…
What is the prognosis of back pain?
Understanding prognosis is important in managing low back pain. In this article, we discuss the available evidence on low back pain prognosis and describe how prognostic evidence can be used…
Measuring the global burden of low back pain
Low back pain is a major cause of morbidity in high-, middle- and low-income countries, yet to date it has been relatively under-prioritised and under-funded. One important reason may be…
Recent advances in the evaluation and management of nonspecific low back pain and related disorders
This issue of the journal aims to bring the busy clinician up to date with recent developments in key aspects of evaluation and management of non-specific low back pain, and…
Primary angiitis of the central nervous system: differential diagnosis and treatment
While primary angiitis of the central system (PACNS) remains a rare entity, the poor specificity of the available diagnostic tests and its multiple mimics create a major diagnostic challenge. Recently,…
Treatment-resistant inflammatory myopathy
When confronted with a dermatomyositis or polymyositis patient not responding to immunosuppressive treatment, physicians must first ask whether the original diagnosis was correct. In this review, we provide a guide…
