To subgroup, or not to subgroup?

Background: Outcomes for treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP) are moderate at best. One possible reason for this may be because the majority of studies consider samples to be homogeneous. Derivation of subgroups of people with CLBP may allow development of targeted interventions which may improve outcomes. However, when treatments matched to specific subgroups of people with CLBP have been compared to unmatched or control treatments, they have generally also had limited outcomes to date. A second possible reason for poor outcomes is that the majority of interventions do not consider the multidimensional nature of CLBP.

Source: Manual Therapy - April 1, 2017 Category: Physiotherapy Authors: M. Rabey, A. Smith, D. Beales, H. Slater, P. O'Sullivan Source Type: research