Andersson G B
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Lancet. 1999 Aug 14;354(9178):581-5. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)01312-4.
Although the literature is filled with information about the prevalence and incidence of back pain in general, there is less information about chronic back pain, partly because of a lack of agreement about definition. Chronic back pain is sometimes defined as back pain that lasts for longer than 7-12 weeks. Others define it as pain that lasts beyond the expected period of healing, and acknowledge that chronic pain may not have well-defined underlying pathological causes. Others classify frequently recurring back pain as chronic pain since it intermittently affects an individual over a long period. Most national insurance and industrial sources of data include only those individuals in whom symptoms result in loss of days at work or other disability. Thus, even less is known about the epidemiology of chronic low-back pain with no associated work disability or compensation. Chronic low-back pain has also become a diagnosis of convenience for many people who are actually disabled for socioeconomic, work-related, or psychological reasons. In fact, some people argue that chronic disability in back pain is primarily related to a psychosocial dysfunction. Because the validity and reliability of some of the existing data are uncertain, caution is needed in an assessment of the information on this type of pain.
尽管文献中充斥着关于背痛总体患病率和发病率的信息，但关于慢性背痛的信息较少，部分原因是对定义缺乏共识。慢性背痛有时被定义为持续超过7至12周的背痛。其他人则将其定义为持续超过预期愈合期的疼痛，并承认慢性疼痛可能没有明确的潜在病理原因。还有人将频繁复发的背痛归类为慢性疼痛，因为它在很长一段时间内间歇性地影响个体。大多数国家保险和行业数据源仅包括那些症状导致工作日损失或其他残疾的个体。因此，对于没有相关工作残疾或赔偿的慢性下背痛的流行病学了解更少。慢性下背痛也已成为许多因社会经济、工作相关或心理原因而实际残疾的人的一种方便诊断。事实上，一些人认为背痛中的慢性残疾主要与心理社会功能障碍有关。由于现有一些数据的有效性和可靠性不确定，在评估此类疼痛的信息时需要谨慎。
