Back pain treatment often not in line with guidelines

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite guidelines to treat back pain conservatively, the proportion of people prescribed powerful painkillers or referred for surgery and other specialty care has increased in recent years, according to a new study. “This is kind of concerning,” said Dr. Steven Cohen, an anesthesiologist and critical care doctor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who didn’t participate in the research. Surgery, injections and scans for back pain “have all gone up pretty dramatically,” he told Reuters Health. …