Addressing concurrent health conditions in spinal pain management was evaluated in only 5 studies and 23 clinical guidelines, revealing minimal consideration and limited evidence of additional benefits.
Systematic Review
Does addressing other health conditions in spinal pain management improve pain, disability, and psychological comorbidities?
There is a lack of evidence and guideline recommendations regarding the management of spinal pain in patients with concurrent chronic health conditions.
Objective: This scoping review aimed to map existing literature and whether clinical guidelines recommend taking other health conditions into consideration in spinal pain management. Method: Systematic searches covered PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library, alongside free-text online searches for clinical practice guidelines on spinal pain. Eligibility criteria encompassed studies on spinal pain with one or more chronic conditions. Study design, population, aim, outcome measurements, and findings of the included studies were summarised. Included studies were assessed for risk of bias and quality. Clinical practice guideline recommendations regarding multimorbidity were summarised. Results: The review included five studies. One study showed that addressing other health conditions in spinal pain management improved psychological comorbidities, pain, and disability. The other studies showed no consistent additional benefits but suggested a trend towards improved pain-related disability. Analysis of 23 clinical practice guidelines revealed minimal consideration of other health conditions in spinal pain management. Conclusions: The sparse literature and limited consideration challenge clinical practice, where spinal pain often occurs in parallel with other health conditions, leaving healthcare providers with limited guidance. This review highlights the need for more research to inform future clinical guidelines for spinal pain in patients with other concurrent health conditions.
Gandløse et al. (Sat,) conducted a systematic review in Spinal pain with concurrent chronic conditions. Addressing other health conditions was evaluated on Consideration of multimorbidity in spinal pain management guidelines and studies. Addressing concurrent health conditions in spinal pain management was evaluated in only 5 studies and 23 clinical guidelines, revealing minimal consideration and limited evidence of additional benefits.