Designed & created by
Gavin Wright
Terms & Conditions 59 Balliol Close, Peterlee, Co.Durham, England. SR8 2NX e-mail
Have you ever asked someone with back pain how severe it is? Maybe you have asked them to rate the pain on a scale of 1-10. How much more beneficial would it be though if you could ask them a set of questions that would enable you to ascertain the cause of the back pain, without resorting to MRI scanning?
Dr Dries Hettinga, Head of Policy and Research at BackCare, told me: "Every year 50% of us experiences back pain and last year almost 5 million working days were lost because of it. Whilst there are many treatments and products available to help people with back pain, it can be difficult to find the right treatment or product for you. This is because so many different types of pain and conditions are grouped under the umbrella term 'back pain' and diagnosing the various types of back pain has proven to be very difficult. The research on the new SteP test is very promising and will help with identifying so called neuropathic pain, which is thought to be responsible for 8 to 16% of all back pain. Neuropathic pain is caused by dysfunctional nerves and needs a different treatment than most other types of pain. With the new test, it will be possible to identify this type of pain and provide timely and effective treatment. "
http://www.backcare.org.uk/270-5713/Test-for-diagnosing-neuropathic-pain.html
of back pain
