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Neck and Back Pain
Neck and Back Pain SymptomsMany patients have a primary pain zone in either the cervical or lumbar spinal region. This is the area of their main symptomatic occurrence. However, there are times when the pain in the primary location gets much better, often to be replaced by pain in the secondary symptomatic region. This type of morphing and migrating pain is rarely the result of an anatomical cause. A psycho-emotional condition is far more likely to be the actual cause of pain in both locations. This is a classic example of back pain substitute symptoms.Neck and Back Pain TreatmentMost doctors love to connect symptoms together in often illogical ways. Look at the example of fibromyalgia. In this pain syndrome, there are a variety of symptoms that do not seem to come from any particular singular cause. Yet somehow, they are linked together under a common nomenclature, in order to make diagnosis easy. Beyond diagnosis comes treatment and a condition with multiple symptoms often requires multiple treatments, so everyone wins… OH, except the poor patient. Back and neck pain are not generally 2 sides of the same coin. They do not usually come from some physical condition somehow affecting opposite ends of the spine. They do, however, have one thing in common; a high incidence of psychological causation.Recommendation on Neck and Back PainThis is a combination back pain syndrome that brings back horrible memories from my own past. While my main back pain complaint was in my lumbar spine (L4/L5 and L5/S1), I also experienced times when the lumbar pain would lessen and I would instead develop stiff and painful neck muscles. I do not recall ever having both pains simultaneously. My care providers always blamed this on some illogical theory. My chiropractors believed that the pain moving to my neck proved that they were helping my lower back (silly). Other doctors said my entire back problem was a result of muscle imbalance (sillier). Many therapists told me my lower back “pulled” on my spine causing a domino effect and created pain radiating all the way into the neck (silliest). The reality of my pain turned out to be the same as most cases of multiple location symptom syndromes; I had psychologically induced pain.Back and neck pain is a very common pair of torturous conditions. When I talk to a patient with this variety of pain, I almost always immediately think PSYCHOSOMATIC. If you are experiencing recurrent alternating back and neck pain that has resisted all attempts at treatment, consider the possibility that you too have pain that might originate in an organ far different from the spine… THE BRAIN.
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