Table 3.

Current gaps and areas of improvement in acute LBP management clinical practice guidelines. Elaborated from data in [3, 10, 35, 43, 49, 51]

Current CPS gaps	Areas of improvement
CPGs are mostly consensus-based rather than evidence-based	Build high-quality clinical evidence upon a rigorous clinical trial design and evidence-based medication choice
CPGs are based on the assumption that LBP is short lived, benign, and effectively addressed by a stepped care approach	Gather evidence from studies exploring both pain and disability trajectories in patients with LBP, as well as identifying the factors predicting recurrence and chronicity
CPGs are characterized by a limited applicability and implementation in routine settings and a wide variability in the recommended pharmacological and interventional options	Gather evidence from head-to-head comparisons of newly released drugs with older agents to improve appropriateness of pharmacotherapy in clinical practice
CPGs provide conflicting evidence and of variable quality, and acknowledge limited participation of patients and their advocates	Design high-quality clinical evidence that investigate how to increase patients biopsychosocial benefits, submitting them to active questionnaires

CPG clinical practice guideline, LBP low back pain