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The symptoms of back pain vary, and it may not be easy to link your pain directly to its cause.

Here are some common symptoms and what they may mean.

Aches, spasm and stiffness: You may have painful muscle spasms in your back. (Muscle spasms are when your muscles tighten on their own). These are very common.¹ The pain may be a constant dull ache, or it may be sharp and burn when you move around. Your back may be tender when you touch it.

Pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in one of your legs: This type of pain is sometimes called sciatica.² It's usually caused by a damaged disk pressing on nerves that join up with your sciatic nerves. (Your sciatic nerves are the main nerves in your legs. You have one sciatic nerve running down each of your legs). Even though the problem is in your back, you might feel more pain in one of your legs. The pain may feel like it is traveling all the way from the top of your leg to your foot. This pain might get worse when you cough or sneeze, or when your lift things. Or, it might hurt more when you sit or stand in particular positions.³ If you don't have sciatica, you may still have a damaged disk. We've called this condition a slipped disk because that's the name that most people know. To learn more, see our articles on Slipped disk.

Depression and irritability: Constant pain can affect your life and relationships, and make you feel cross and even depressed. You may feel tired, less hungry and lose weight.²

Finding it difficult to move: Putting up with the pain is hard enough, but it can be even more frustrating when it keeps you from doing your normal activities. It's worth talking to your doctor about this. To find out why you have the pain, your doctor should investigate which of your movements are, and which aren't, restricted by your pain.⁴

High fever: If you have a high fever with your pain, let your doctor know because you might have an infection.⁵

Pain when you are resting: If you find that you still have pain at night when you're lying down, or if the pain gets worse at night, then it is a good idea to tell your doctor this. Pain at night is a very common symptom of back problems, but there is a very small chance that you could have a tumor.² This is more likely if you have had cancer before, so make sure your doctor knows your complete medical history.⁵

If you have severe back pain and you also lose control of your bowel or bladder (you can't control when you need to go to the washroom), or if your arms or legs feel numb or weak, you need to see a doctor urgently.

You may have a damaged disk which is pressing on your spinal cord (doctors call this spinal cord compression). Or a damaged disk could be pressing on the nerves that run down from the bottom of your spinal cord. Doctors call these nerves the cauda equina. If these nerves are being damaged, it's called cauda equina syndrome.

We don't talk about treating spinal cord compression or cauda equina syndrome here. But they are medical emergencies. If you have these symptoms, you may need urgent surgery to relieve the pressure on the affected nerves.