title: Low-back pain: pain description as a diagnostic aid.
abstract: Chronic low-back pain sufferers often present a mixture of somatic and psychologic symptoms, complicating the determination of diagnoses. Two hundred consecutively referred patients with chronic low-back pain had clinical, radiological and laboratory tests performed. The patients were classified into one of the three different categories: a somatic (I) and a somatoform group (III), and an intermediate variety (II). All patients completed a pain questionnaire, giving information about distribution, intensity, variation and somato-sensory qualities of pain in various parts of the body. Patients in group I compared to group III showed differences in pain localization, dispersion and intensity, as well as pain variation and relief. Somatoform patients were mostly females in their forties, their symptoms had started earlier and lasted longer as compared to patients of the intermediate and somatic variety. In diagnosing and dealing with low-back pain patients general practitioners and specialists are recommended to use a simplified pain questionnaire as an aid in sorting the complainers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Aust-Agder Central Hospital, Arendal, Norway.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kogstad
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Ljunggren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001416:Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires