Effect of Usual Medical Care Plus Chiropractic Care vs Usual Medical Care Alone on Pain and Disability Among US Service Members With Low Back Pain: A Comparative Effectiveness Clinical Trial.

The Facts:

a. The authors felt it was important to look at the effect of non-medication approaches to back pain.

b. They sought to see if the addition of chiropractic care to medical care would result in more improvement than using medical care alone.

c. “The intervention period was 6 weeks. Usual medical care included self-care, medications, physical therapy, and pain clinic referral. Chiropractic care included spinal manipulative therapy in the low back and adjacent regions and additional therapeutic procedures such as rehabilitative exercise, cryotherapy, superficial heat, and other manual therapies.”

d. A total of 750 subjects divided evenly (250 at each site) between three different sites.

e. The improvement in pain intensity and disability favored the combination of chiropractic care coupled with usual medical care over medical care alone.

f. “Chiropractic care, when added to UMC, resulted in moderate short-term treatment benefits in both LBP intensity and disability…”

If you or someone you know is suffering from low back pain call Dr. Steve!