Effect of relaxation in patients with low-back pain

Introduction: In Colombia low back pain is one of the most common health problems. It is the third most common cause of emergency room consultation and the fourth most common cause for general medical care. There is also a significant burden in connection with this pathology taking into account that the high cost of treatment and sick leaves. Conventional pharmacotherapy has proven to be effective over placebo treatment, although undesirable side effects have been identified in most of these treatments. In non-pharmacologic therapies, relaxation techniques have become an important and effective therapeutic method. Models which could alleviate low back pain through relaxation have been described. The existing theoretical methods can help to recover the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, as well as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. There is also a positive cognitive restructuring. Aims: This research aims to make a critical, deep and up-to-date review of biomedical literature about the effect of relaxation in patients with low-back pain. Methods: We searched Medline's biomedical literature for articles matching the Medical Subjects Headings (MeSH) "Mind-Body Therapies", "Relaxation Therapy" and "Back Pain". Then we refined the search only to those papers which had available abstracts, which were clinical trials and meta-analysis, either in English or Spanish. 40 articles were found. Discussion: According to the studies conducted those techniques causing a relaxation effect can be an effective treatment for patients with low-back pain as they contribute to take the pain under control. However there is not enough evidence because there are very few controlled clinical tests carried out on small population samples. Conclusions: Relaxation techniques are an effective treatment for patients with low-back pain. Its application would probably benefit large groups of patients and its implementation would decrease the costs related to this disease. However, more clinical trials need to be done on this subject.