Why Joint Back Pain Can Be Controversial

There are many forms of joint pain, including joint back pain, which is more popularly known in the medical world as facet joint pain. This form of joint pain has created quite a controversy as far as diagnoses in orthopaedic medicine, particularly those related to arthritis in the spine, are concerned. While arthritis in the spine remains an inevitable part of the aging process, only a very few number of sufferers experience painful symptoms, the leading of which is facet joint pain.

Facet join pain, also referred to as facet joint pain syndrome, is a distinct physical evidence of the existence of arthritis in the spine that consists of degenerative changes in the spinal vertebrae, including the gradual build up of osteophytes or bone spurs in the facet joints. The formation of these bone spurs account for most of the pain that characterizes the syndrome; it causes excruciating bone on bone contact and a string of pinched nerves. As mentioned earlier, only a very few number of spinal arthritis sufferers complain of these painful symptoms; most have bone spurs that are merely there and do not cause agonizing sensations. This particular fact is the very reason why facet join pain syndrome is controversial; doctors are still at a loss for explanation as regards the cause of pain in spinal arthritis sufferers and the lack of it in most patients who also show degenerative changes in their spines.

Like many medical conditions out there, joint back pain may also be psychosomatic or the product of too much attention or over-analysis. However, doctors of modern medicine rarely give a diagnosis of psychological facet joint pain even though most cases have suggested being such. Instead, patients who actually suffer from psychosomatic facet joint pain are examined for some coincidental spinal abnormality that becomes the scapegoat for their symptoms. As doctors try to answer why the rest of the patients who have comparable degenerative changes remain untouched by pain, misdiagnoses result in the actual sufferers’ slim chances for recovery, not to mention unnecessary and costly expenses for healthcare. The possibility of psychological facet joint pain, as opposed to real facet joint pain, is another reason that makes this syndrome controversial.

It seems quite confusing and difficult to tell psychological facet joint pain apart from real facet joint pain, but experts are more than optimistic to report that physical symptoms of joint back pain in patients of real facet joint pain, as opposed to psychological facet joint pain, will react or respond well to therapy or treatment and will not reoccur later on. Psychosomatic symptoms, on the other hand, will surely reappear even after different kinds of therapies or treatments have been employed. People over the age of 40 are likely to have degenerative changes in the spinal area. If pain is felt and a diagnosis of facet joint pain is given, immediate treatment should be sought in order to check the accuracy of the diagnosis. If symptoms persist, the cause may be psychosomatic and should thus be acted upon right away.