Having chronic headaches would double the risk of suffering from back pain, and vice versa. This is revealed by a study conducted by researchers from the English University Warwick Medical School.
Whatever parts of the body are affected, the pain we may feel is not always isolated. This is the meaning ofstudy conducted by six researchers from England’s Warwick Medical School, funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Published by The Journal of Headache and Painthis work focuses on the link between chronic headaches and persistent back pain.
Based on 14 studies – with participant numbers ranging from 88 to 404,206 – the team found that people with one condition are twice as likely to have the other as well. “It’s very interesting because, generally, chronic low back pain and headaches are studied as separate disorders, comments Professor Martin Underwood, one of the participants in the project, in a item published on the Warwick Medical School website. This suggests that there might be, at least in some people, a commonality in the source of the problem.”
Towards a common treatment for headaches and back pain?
If, for the time being, chronic headache is treated with medication and low back pain with manual therapy sometimes accompanied by anti-inflammatories, researchers are wondering about the possibility of a biological relationship. between the two disorders, which could give rise to the development of a shared treatment. According to the team, such an approach could reduce medication abuse.
“There might be something to dig into the relationship between how people respond to pain – which makes some more susceptible to the physical causes of headaches and those of back pain – and how the body responds there. reacts and how it becomes disabling,” said Professor Martin Underwood.
Back and head pain ‘leading causes of disability worldwide’
As the study recalls, low back pain and headache are the “leading causes of disability worldwide”. If the most common form of headache is migraine, there are others, such as tension headache, which manifests itself by continuous, moderate and diffuse pain, often related to stress or tired. In general, chronic headache is pain felt at least fifteen days a month, for at least three months. This condition affects nearly 3-4% of adults worldwide.
“Around 4% of people in the UK take leave because they have low back pain, the researchers add. This equates to almost 90 million lost working days and 8 to 12 million GP visits a year “. As a reminder, chronic low back pain is defined by pain felt in the lower back area for more than three months.
“Changing the way we manage these people on a daily basis”
“We could consider developing appropriate support and counseling programs for this population, believes Professor Martin Underwood. Being aware of the relationship between headaches and back pain has the potential to change the way we manage these people on a daily basis in the national health service”.
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