title: Acute low back pain: patients' perceptions of pain four weeks after initial diagnosis and treatment in general practice.
abstract: In a nationwide study of the treatment of acute low back pain with and without radiation in general practice in the Netherlands the subjective well-being of patients was evaluated by means of a short questionnaire sent to patients four weeks after the initial contact with their general practitioner.After this period pain had disappeared in 28% of the patients, was diminished in 47%, was unchanged in 2% and was aggravated in 4%. There was no difference in the pain score of patients with and without follow-up encounters with their general practitioner. In all instances patients with low back pain without radiation fared significantly better than those with radiation. Radiation of pain was not constant - during the four-week follow-up period it developed in 19% of the patients originally without radiation and it disappeared in 44% of the patients originally suffering radiation.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001416:Back Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors