Scoliosis and pain - is there any relationship?

In our rehabilitation center scoliosis treatment consists of a daily postur al education, lasting several hours. For pain therapy, we apply mainly phys iotherapeutical methods with osteopathy, manual therapy, Me Kenzie and Brug ger. In addition we offer psychological help for pain relief. In case of se vere chronic pain, we treat additonally with acupuncture. Pain therapy with medication is only performed in rare cases. The aim of the following study was to investigate the correlation between pain and scoliosis as well as s hort-term effects of pain therapy in scoliosis. ln our database we have mea nwhile 2.049 adult patients with scoliosis of different etiology (mainly id iopathic scolioses), who reported their pain level at the beginning and the end of a 3-6 week in-patient rehabilitation program. For this aim we used a visual analog scale (VAS), a numerical scale (NS), a standardized adjecti ve scale (VRS) and a pain frequency scale. In addition, we correlated age a nd curvature angle according to Cobb with pain level and pain frequency. Pa tients with an average curvature angle according to Cobb of 38 degrees and an average age of 29 years showed no correlation between pain severity and curvature angle, but there was a correlation between pain severity and the patient's age. Before the in-patient treatment, 35% of the patients suffere d no pain, after an in-patient treatment, 41% of the patients reported havi ng no pains. All scale values showed a highly significant decrease in the n onparametrical Wilcoxon-test. As there seems to be no correlation between curvature angle and pain severi ty, our findings thus confirm the theory, that scoliosis and pain are indep endent parameters. An in-patient rehabilitation seems to be able to have a positive effect on pain.