Lower back pain is the fifth most common reason patients visit their physicians and often results in unnecessary testing, according to Undark.
The American Academy of Family Physicians recommends physicians wait four to six weeks before conducting imaging tests for back pain, unless a patient presents signs of a serious underlying condition.
However, patients often demand imaging tests sooner, and many physicians are hesitant to tell them they must wait to see if the pain goes away on its own, according to Undark.
Despite medical societies' campaigns to limit this unnecessary testing, MRI and other scans for lower back pain increased by 53.5 percent between 1995 and 2015, according to a 2019 analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. A related study deemed 34.8 percent of these tests inappropriate.
These unnecessary tests increase healthcare costs and can lead to unnecessary treatments for benign abnormalities found during scans. Excessive X-rays and CT scans also expose patients to unnecessary radiation, Undark noted.
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