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[PaulCr125]

Is there anyone with experience with physician’s rehabilitation. They advertise non surgical treatments to alleviate symptom and pain. Any information would help.
Thanks
Paul

[Jack58033]

Google John Sarno. This guy was in charge of a major rehab institution in New York City. It is worth the search. Good luck.

[Bay Kid]

Google John Sarno. This guy was in charge of a major rehab institution in New York City. It is worth the search. Good luck.

Very interesting. Thank you.

[golfing eagles]

Is there anyone with experience with physician’s rehabilitation. They advertise non surgical treatments to alleviate symptom and pain. Any information would help.
Thanks
Paul

Google John Sarno. This guy was in charge of a major rehab institution in New York City. It is worth the search. Good luck.

OK, please enlighten me as to why some patients think the way they think:

Here's what a search of Sarno reveals:

"Sarno originated the term tension myositis syndrome (TMS) to name a claimed psychosomatic condition producing pain—particularly back pain.[5] The syndrome's diagnosis and treatment protocol are not accepted by the mainstream medical community.[6][7]"

And to expand:
"Sarno's most notable[according to whom?] achievement is the development, diagnosis, and treatment of tension myoneural syndrome (TMS), which is currently not accepted by mainstream medicine.[7][9] According to Sarno, TMS is a psychosomatic illness causing chronic back, neck, and limb pain that is not relieved by standard medical treatments. He includes other ailments, such as gastrointestinal problems, dermatological disorders, and repetitive-strain injuries, as TMS-related. Sarno states that he has successfully treated over ten thousand patients at the Rusk Institute by educating them on his beliefs of a psychological and emotional basis to their pain and symptoms.[10] Sarno's theory is, in part, that the pain or other symptoms are an unconscious "distraction" to aid in the repression of deep unconscious emotional issues. Sarno believes that when patients think about what may be upsetting them in their unconscious, they can defeat their mind's strategy to repress these powerful emotions; when the symptoms are seen for what they are, the symptoms then serve no purpose and go away. Supporters of Sarno's work hypothesize an inherent difficulty in performing the clinical trials needed to prove or disprove the diagnosis since it is difficult to conduct clinical trials on psychosomatic illnesses.[11]"

So basically he is espousing a theory of psychobabble that even he stated cannot be proven (or more to the point disproven). Meanwhile, most causes of back pain are organic, not psychosomatic in nature.

So, back to my question:

Why is it that some people (not singling out anyone) decline to see an orthopedic spine specialist for their back pain and instead go out of their way to seek out chiropractic/alternative/holistic quacks? And then shell out big bucks out of pocket to buy their snake oil? Is it marketing?

If it's marketing, no group has done a better job at it than pharmacists. After all, the big bad physician is going to prescribe horrible drugs with horrible "side effects" because they are all "pawns" of big pharma, but the friendly neighborhood pharmacist with 5% of the knowledge of a physician is going to save you. And I thought Winston Smith was brainwashed.