When I hurt my back, my doctor at the time told me one thing about how long it would take to get better and then a later doctor told me another. It seems that neither was right and I still have chronic back pain. Why the different opinions?

Chronic back pain is one of the most difficult issues to deal with because most often, there’s no identifiable cause.

Researchers have been trying to find ways to make up “models” that will help doctors understand the different steps that a patient may go through, and then be able to come up with a reasonable prediction of success. This is done in many medical fields.that a model has been impossible so far.

The problem is, however, patients with chronic back pain are so different in how they were hurt, the injuries, their progress and their own role in healing, that a model has been impossible so far.