Back Pain Treated with Massage Therapy - Research Paper Example

The search included Medline, Embase, Cinahl, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Inclusive were studies that compared massage therapy to other treatments for back pain and excluded was research studies done without a control and studies done with patients on pain medications. The results yielded 20 articles that met the criteria for this review. Positive effects from massage therapy as primary treatment were shown in all but one study. In that study, when compared to acupuncture, this researcher had better results with the acupuncture.

There are still some unknowns that need further studies but there is evidence showing that massage is a good primary therapeutic choice. Back pain is one of the most costly and common musculoskeletal problems in modern society. It is the primary reason patients seek massage therapy and the second reason that a patient visits a physician with pain. Most primary care physicians will see at least one patient with low back pain per week. The economic impact of this back pain is great, including loss of work, treatment costs, and disability payments.

In 1998, total health care expenditures incurred by individuals with back pain in the United States reached 90.7 billion dollars and total incremental expenditures attributable to back pain among these persons were approximately 26.3 billion dollars. On average, individuals with back pain incurred health care expenditures about 60% higher than individuals without back pain (3,498 dollars vs. 2,178 dollars). (Luo, Pietrobon, Sun, 2004). The primary goal in treating back pain is to improve the pain and return function.

The patient and his physician have a number of treatment choices for this care. These choices include surgery, medication, acupuncture, exercise therapy, multidisciplinary rehabilitations programs, massage, and spinal manipulation as well as combinations of these. Most patients with chronic low back pain do not benefit from having surgery (Last, Hulbert, 2009). Chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and meditation have become more popular recently (Pengal, Herbert, 2003). Yet only recently has there been evidence-based investigation into treatments that are alternative to medication and surgery.

This research will attempt to determine whether massage is a good treatment for the back pain. Literature ReviewBackground Studies In 1997 the first full systematic review of studies was done by VanTulder, Marits, and Koes et.al. (1997). This was a review of randomized control trials completed up to 1997. The aim of that original literature review was to assess the effectiveness of alternative types of care for back pain. Many options were available at the time. A pain scale was used to rate the back pain in studies at that time and all of the studies included had participants with back pain that was rated between 7 and 9.

The trials were then rated for validity and 35% of those trials reviewed were considered of high validity while 5% were considered not valid. Many flaws were noted in the studies, which included the use of medication during the trials and short-term effects were not considered in any of the studies. Only long-term effects were validated. Considering these things, the overall adequacy and validity of early control trial was poor. In 2005 VanTulder, Marits