In The Compensable Backache, M.D. Nortin Hadler illustrated the conditions of Regional Low Back Pain (LBP), and the incorrect notion that diagnosis and treatment are the only ways to resolve this injury. In our society, Hadler said, once a physician makes a diagnosis, a person has the option of becoming a patient, becoming a claimant, or remaining the same person they were before. However, since self-treatment is the least encouraged option, most people fall into the realm of treatment, creating an environment where being “healthy” is now defined as living in a manner of constant coping with a condition. The transformation of back pain to back injury is an example of how we have altered our mindset from one of dealing with the normal aches and pains of life to one that involves necessary diagnoses and extensive continual treatment.

The audio recording and handouts from Dr. Hadler’s session are available for purchase here.