interesting article from a couple of days ago on the lack of correlation between pain and findings on imaging -

my favorite pull quote:

The question, though, was whether it helped the patients and their doctors to know what the M.R.I.’s had found. And the answer, Dr. Modic reported, is that it did not. The patients who knew recovered no faster than those who did not know. However, Dr. Modic said, there was one effect of being told — patients felt worse about themselves when they knew they had a bulging disk.

“If I tell you that you have a degenerated disk, basically I’m telling you you’re ugly,” Dr. Modic said.