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Chiropractic More Effective For Chronic Spinal Pain Than Medication, Acupuncture

A study in the July 15, 2003 issue of Spine reports that in a clinical study of patients with chronic spinal pain, patients receiving chiropractic care responded much more favorably and with better results than patients who went through a regimen of medication or acupuncture.

 

 

The study involved 115 patients admitted to an Australian multidisciplinary spinal pain outpatient clinic. Each patient was randomly assigned to receive either chiropractic care, needle acupuncture or medication. Each patient was initially assessed with the Oswestry Back Pain Disability Index (simply known as Oswestry), the Neck Disability Index (NDI), the Short-Form-36 Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36), visual analog scales (VAS) of pain intensity and ranges of movement. The same tests were given again at 2, 5 and 9 weeks into their respective care programs.

 

 

According to the results, 27.3% of the patients under chiropractic care experienced early pain relief. Only 9.4% of the acupuncture patients and 5% of the medication patients experienced early pain relief.

 

 

The chiropractic patients also had the most improvement when measured by the other tests with improvements of 50% on the Oswestry, 38% on the NDI, 47% on the SF-36 and 50% on the VAS for back pain.

 

 

Commentary: This study concentrated on the early relief of pain, obviously an important concern for the patients experiencing it. And as important as your pain relief may be, your chiropractor is also concerned about the long-term correction of your spinal problems.