It should be obvious that early physical therapy for low back pain can reduce costs for future treatments, but now there is a study to prove it. The findings, published in the scientific journal BMC Services Research shows that early and guideline adherent physical therapy following an initial episode of low back pain resulted in substantially lower costs and reduced use of health care resources over a 2-year period.

The study was conducted by physical therapist researches who analyzed 122,723 patients who went to a primary care physician following an initial low back pain episode. THey then received physical therapy within 90 days.

During a 2-year time period, these patients made significantly less use of advanced imaging, lumbar spinal injections, lumbar spine surgery, and opioids than did patients in other combinations of timing and adherence.

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