Effectiveness of an educational intervention on pain duration and severity of herniated disc

BACKGROUND: One of the causes of low back pain is herniated disc that puts pressure on the nerve roots and cause pain radiating down the legs. Specific body movements tend to aggravate pain. Among treatment approaches, patient education could be considered as an effective way of pain management. We did not find any study showing the effects of educational intervention on pain management in searched medical literature. This study aimed to investigate effects of educational intervention on the level of pain due to herniated disc. METHODS: In this study, 83 patients with lumbar disc pain were selected and pain intensity and duration were recorded based on a scale from one to ten. The average pain intensity and duration before and after intervention were recorded. Then the data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Frequency of L4-L5 herniated disc was 39.7%, L5-S1 was 36.1% and L4-S1 was 24.1%. Mean intensity of pain before intervention was 8.33. After intervention, duration of pain decreased from 8.34 ± 0.73 to 6.76 ± 5.54 (P < 0.001) and mean duration of pain before and after intervention were 65.6 ± 5.21 and 53.5 ± 5.83 minutes, respectively (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Educational intervention for patient with lumbar herniated disc could be used as a practical complementary method beside other therapeutic approaches in the treatment of low back pain.