Chiropractic Care for Chronic Neck & Back Pain

Chiropractic care shown to be more effective than acupuncture and anti-inflammatory drugs for chronic neck and back pain. A 2003 study in the journal Spine looked at people with 4.5-8.3 years of chronic spinal pain. All participants were evaluated with standard measurement outcome questionnaires. Those people that received the anti-inflammatory drugs (Celebrex or Vioxx) had 4.5-6.4 years of chronic spinal pain. Only 5% were asymptomatic within 9 weeks, 6.1% suffered an adverse event, and only 18% reported improvement in general health status. In the needle acupuncture group, the participants also had 4.5-6.4 years of chronic spinal pain. 9.4% were asymptomatic within 9 weeks, none of them suffered an adverse event, and 15% reported improvement in general health status. The group receiving chiropractic care had 8.3 years of chronic spinal pain. 27.3% were asymptomatic within 9 weeks, none of them suffered an adverse event, and 47% reported improvement in general health status! A year after the completion of this study the participants were re-evaluated and the results published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiologic Therapeutics. In this follow-up study, results showed that neither the drugs Celebrex/Vioxx nor needle acupuncture afforded a long term therapeutic benefit to the chronic spinal pain patients (only one improvement outcome out of 7 for both groups). In contrast, chiropractic spinal adjustments did show a significant long term therapeutic benefit (statistically significant improvement in 5 of 7 outcomes).