The price you pay for a bad back
July 30th, 2010Back pain is not only painful, it’s expensive. The average back-pain sufferer—or his or her insurer—spent about $1,600 on it in 2007, including about $1,150 for doctor visits and $450 for medications, according to a recent report for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Altogether, the 27 million people who experienced the pain that year spent more than $30 billion seeking relief.
Unfortunately, the AHRQ study doesn’t tell us if the patients got their money’s worth. But it’s likely that a good deal of them found little relief. Others probably would have gotten better on their own. And sometimes all it takes is removing your wallet from your back pocket. That’s just how back pain is.
It is a notoriously tricky condition to diagnose and treat. Research suggests that people respond differently to the various treatments, which include exercise, medications, surgery, and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and spinal manipulations. An article in the July 29th New England Journal of Medicine, for example, found that while acupuncture may be helpful for some, it hasn’t proven itself more effective than sham acupuncture in trials. And people who get either real or sham acupuncture tend to fare better than those who get no treatment at all.
Use our treatment Ratings (available to subscribers) to see when treatment might be necessary, and when it’s best to simply wait the pain out. When treatment is needed, the Ratings can help make sure you get the most for your health-care dollars.
—Kevin McCarthy, associate editor
If you need help treating your back pain, take a look at what worked for our readers and what to consider if you're considering surgery.
