There are many types of back pain and can be categorized in many ways. According to recent studies, till today, only 15% of total cases are accountable to any specific reason. It is caused by many types of diseases, injuries, infections, bad postures, deformities, anatomical problems and due to presence of some other disease not directly related to backache.
Broadly there can be two categories - acute and chronic pain. Acutely hurting back pain is usually caused by injuries to the muscles, ligaments, bones or lack of lubrication in the joints, strained joints or bruises. Out of these, except in few cases of lack of lubrication in the joints, all the other type of backache caused, can be treated completely and pain goes away within few weeks. Acute back pain has very definite symptom and occur intermittently. Most of the time acute pain is pin pointed and can be subsided by proper treatment though a dull pain may continue to exist in some cases.
Chronic back pain is a deep ache occurring in one part of the back and extending to the legs. It can be sharp knife like, burning, shooting, prick of pins and needle. It can also cause numbness in the pelvic region or spine and muscular weakness. It can be categorized in two, one with identified reason and others are for whom the real cause cannot be identified.
Osteoarthritis, herniated disc, irritated spinal chord or spinal nerves, osteoporosis, spondylolisthesis, scoliosis, kyphosis, stenosis and fractures are treatable reasons that cause chronic backaches. Sometimes it is not curable or treatable and may exist forever, those occur due to unidentifiable reasons. Some chronic pains like nocioceptive pains are caused due to any injury to muscle, tendons, bones ligaments and facet joints. These types occur along with inflammation and are controlled by medication or alternate therapy.
Neuropathy is nerve pain and is caused due to pinched nerve. Infection, injury, anatomical problem or disease may give rise to these types. Parasthesia is a neuropathy with tingling, pain and feeling of pricks of pins and needles in extremity. Radiculopathy makes person suffer from pain, numbness, tingling and weakness down the leg or down the arm. Sciatica is also a neuropathy arising due to pinched nerve. Discogenic pains do not cause any type of numbness, shooting pain or tingling either in the pelvic region or spine and arise from an intervertebral disc.
Other types in chronic pain category are called benign pains. These occur or rather always exist because signals are transmitted to the brain for an existence of pain though there may or may not be any injury at all. Depressive and anxious thoughts also encourage such type of backache. Acute pains may subside after the treatment but can turn into a chronic pain if it recurs few times in a year. Even after the successful treatment of any acute pain preventive therapies shall be continued to avoid the pain surfacing again.
