title: Back pain, the uncomfortable truth - assurance and activity problem.
abstract: Back problems are common, expensive, and the few patients who are the crux of the problem are uncomfortable but also an uncomfortable frustration for clinicians and employers alike. We now know that clinicians can greatly improve the patient's response to back symptoms by admitting our diagnostic limitations, demedicalizing the issue, providing assurance, and encouraging a more reasonable approach to improving comfortable activity tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, USA.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Bigos
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations