Treatment Overview

Comprehensive rehabilitation (rehab) programs offer treatment for low back pain. They may use physical therapy, pain management with medicine and coping skills, and other medical treatments.

These programs teach you how to care for your back and how to prevent reinjury. If you have long-term pain, they teach you how to manage your pain—and situations that make your pain worse—on a daily basis. Good programs include doctors, physical therapists, behavioral counselors, and social workers.

You are likely to benefit from one of these programs if you:

• Have pain and decreased function that have not improved after 2 to 4 months of treatment.
• Have long-term (chronic) low back pain. These programs are thought to be an effective approach to treating chronic low back pain.^{footnote 1}
• Have had back surgery.
• Have had one or more unsuccessful back surgeries and have had pain and decreased function for several years.