Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 488
This study was designed to determine the efficacy of chiropractic management in a secondary care setting. The main objective of the study was to compare efficacy of chiropractic management protocols with that of outpatient pain clinic management protocols in the treatment of chronic mechanical low back pain.
Thirty eligible patients suffering with chronic mechanical low back pain who had been referred through normal channels to an outpatient pain clinic were randomised into the control (pain clinic) or experimental (chiropractic) groups. All treatment was administered within a hospital setting and lasted for 8 weeks, with a maximum of 16 individual sessions. Outcome measures (Roland Morris, Pain Scale) were administered every 2 weeks during treatment and at 1-month follow-up.
Mean scores for pain and disability remained similar through the treatment and follow-up for the pain clinic group. The chiropractic group showed improvement in both outcome measures following the end of the treatment period. Patients with higher initial scores of pain and disability fared less well in both groups.
Initial indications suggest that chiropractic treatment may bestow some benefit, at least comparable to outpatient pain clinic protocols. This benefit is most apparent in the patient subgroup demonstrating lower initial disability scores. The success of the pilot has initiated a follow-up study including a larger patient cohort and follow-up periods of 1, 3 and 6 months.
