Are MRI scans over diagnosing back pain?
Professor Peter O’Sullivan of Pain-Ed.com recently discussed the potential over treatment of athletes with back pain.
This can be applied to not just athletes but members of the general public who have ongoing non-traumatic back pain.
Read up on this in more detail here:
www.pain-ed.com/blog/2016/02/12/over-treatment-and-inappropriate-treatment-of-pain-in-athletes
But in summary:
- Don’t rely on scan results alone to diagnose the cause of your pain.
- Scans are helpful but are not the only tool to assess your pain.
- Back pain is often linked to any of or a combination of the following, not just injury of tissues:
- Too high training volumes
- Sleep deficits
- Emotional distress
- Fatigue
- Performance pressures
- Fear of pain and poor performance or inability to perform
