Treatment of unspecific back pain in children and adolescents: Inter disciplinary guideline released

Physical therapy and physical activity

Recommendation 1: The authors recommend that active physical therapy be provided to children and adolescents with non-specific back pain.

Recommendation 2: The authors recommend that in physical therapy, children and adolescents with non-specific back pain should be instructed to perform a home exercise and physical activity. Adherence should be regularly monitored and adjusted by physical therapists.

Recommendation 3: Regarding manual therapy, no specific recommendation for non-specific back pain in childhood and adolescence can be provided due to inconsistent evidence.

Psychotherapy

Recommendation 4: The authors endorse cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as the primary treatment for children and adolescents with recurrent or chronic non-specific back pain.

Drug therapy

Recommendation 5: The authors advise against the pharmacological treatment of recurrent or chronic non-specific back pain in children and adolescents.

Invasive therapy

Recommendation 6: The authors advise against invasive treatment for recurrent or chronic non-specific back pain in children and adolescents.

Interdisciplinary treatment programs

Recommendation 7: The authors recommend that children and adolescents with recurrent and chronic non-specific back pain, severe pain-related disability, and ineffective unimodal treatment receive intensified interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment.

Prevention

Recommendation 8: To prevent back pain in children and adolescents, we recommend providing education and instructions for active exercise or encouraging regular physical activity and endurance sports.

"Further research on non-specific back pain in childhood and adolescence is strongly needed to reduce the imbalance between the high burden of non-specific back pain in childhood and adolescence and the low research activity in this field," the authors concluded.