**1. Introduction**

Chronic back pain is a complex process and similar to how each patient has a very individu‐ alized disease process the treatment regimen should be similarly individualized. There are several different medication classes, each with a unique mechanism of action that can assist the practitioner in targeting a specific aspect of a patient's pain. Additionally, patient‐specific factors must be considered when developing a regimen to ensure adherence and improve outcomes. The goal of this chapter will be to provide an adequate overview of the steps a practitioner needs to take during the regimen development process and share enough drug‐ specific information to guide the practitioner in selecting the most efficacious and best suited agents for the individual patient.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Prior to initiating any pharmacologic treatment regimen for a patient, current consensus recommendations include discussing realistic expectations with the patient [1]. This should include patient's expectations of pain relief as well as functional goals that the patient should work toward. Additionally, the clinician should encourage self‐care and education with evi‐ dence‐based materials. It is important to emphasize to the patient that acute low back pain has very favorable improvement in the first month of recovery. Generally speaking, staying active and exercising should be highly encouraged for all patients. Bed rest should only be recom‐ mended if it improves severe pain symptoms and its duration should only be temporary. Patients should also be encouraged to resume activity as quickly as possible.
