Our purpose was to examine if adults with centralizing pain might achieve better treatment outcomes when treated by individually designed therapy than "given advice only to stay active". One hundred and nineteen working adults with first or a recurrent episode of low back pain (LBP) were classified as centralizers and were randomly allocated to orthopaedic manual therapy (OMT; n = 42), the McKenzie (n = 48) or "advice only to stay active" (advice-only; n = 29) groups. Back and leg pain were assessed by the visual analogue scale, disability with the Roland Morris questionnaire and functional status with an activities of daily living (ADL) index. Immediately after the treatment period, LBP decreased significantly more in the McKenzie group than in Advice-only group. At 3 months, leg pain and LBP decreased significantly more in the McKenzie group than in the advice-only group, respectively. At 6 months, leg pain LBP had decreased significantly more in the OMT and McKenzie groups than in the advice-only group. Functional status increased significantly more in the OMT and McKenzie groups than in the Advice-only group. In addition, disability had decreased significantly more in the McKenzie group than in the OMT and advice-only groups. Our results suggest that centralizers have tendency to achieve better treatment outcomes when treated by individually designed therapy than "given advice only to stay active".

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