Chiropractic for Chronic Spinal Pain

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Chiropractic for Chronic Spinal Pain
Jul 2, 2005
Dynamic Chiropractic
CNET Networks, Inc

Latest Research Shows Chiropractic Is the "Only" Care Providing "Broad-Based, Long-Term Benefit"

In 2003, a randomized clinical trial published in the research journal Spine demonstrated that chiropractic manipulation is superior to needle acupuncture and "medication."1,2 The results of a follow-up study were recently released in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT), generating data on patient improvement over one year after care was initially provided.3

The Original Study

The 2003 study1 examined care for chronic patients with more than 13 weeks of spinal pain. After randomization, the chiropractic manipulation group was found to be the most chronic - the "average duration of spinal pain symptoms was 8.3 years for the spinal manipulation group, 6.4 years for the medication group, and 4.5 years for the acupuncture group."

In that study, the investigators utilized a number of evaluation instruments to measure patient status: the Oswestry Back Pain Disability Index (Oswestry), the Neck Disability Index (NDI), the Short-Form-36 Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36), and visual analog scales (VAS) of pain intensity and ranges of movement. These instruments were administered to the study participants before care began and again at two, five and nine weeks after the onset of treatment.

Initially, the patients were randomly divided into three groups: acupuncture, chiropractic manipulation, and medication. Those in the acupuncture ...