Summaries for patients. A comparison of massage therapy and usual medical care for chronic low back pain.

摘要

What is the problem and what is known about it so far? Low back pain is veiy common. It often goes away after several days or weeks, but it may last for months or years or periodically recur. The main goal in treating low back pain is to decrease pain and allow people to resume their normal activities. Usual treatments for low back pain include drugs (painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, and muscle relaxants), physical therapy, back exercises, and education about ways to prevent back injury and deal with back pain. Some people use alternative treatments for low back pain, such as chiropractic or massage therapy. There are at least 2 kinds of massage therapy. Relaxation massage is most common; in this technique, a variety of maneuvers is used to relax the massaged muscles and the person with back pain overall. Structural massage uses maneuvers to release tension in specific tissues and joint structures in an attempt to restore healthy functioning of the muscular and nervous systems. It is not known whether relaxation massage, which is more widely available, is as effective as structural massage.