Research

Chiropractic Research

An increasing body of research studies and reviews has shown that the services provided by doctors of chiropractic are clinically effective, safe and cost effective. The following are some excerpts and summaries from just a few of the thousands of studies about chiropractic treatment.

1. The Journal of Manipulation and Physiological Therapeutics published a study by Nyiendo et al in 2000. In this study of patient s with chronic back pain, found that after one month of treatment patients had greater satisfaction when treated by a doctor of chiropractic than they did when treated by a family doctor. 56 percent of the chiropractic treated patients reported that their low back pain was better or much better. Only 13 percent of the low back pain patients reported that their pain was better or much better after one month of treatment form a family doctor. Almost one third of the patients treated by a family doctor reported that their pain got worse or much worse during this month of medical treatment.

2. The British Journal of Medicine published a study Korthal-de Bos et al in 2003. This was a randomized control trial of neck pain with 183 patients in a 52 week study. The neck pain patients were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. 1. Manual therapy or spinal mobilization. 2. Physiotherapy consisting of mainly exercises. 3. General practitioner care including medication, education and counselling. This research study proved that patients had a faster recovery with manual therapy than they did with exercise and standard medical treatment. The cost of the treatment for the spinal mobilization treatment was about one-third the cost of the physiotherapy and general practitioner's treatments.

3. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study in 2013 by Goodman et al. The study reported that patients with low back pain benefit from exercise, physical therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic.

4. In 2013 Spine published a research study by Goerta et al. They looked at both men and women between the age of 18 and 35 with acute low back pain. The study concluded that the combination of chiropractic manipulative therapy with standard medical care offers significant advantage for decreasing low back pain and improving function than standard medical care alone.

5. Spine published a study in 2015 comparing manual-thrust manipulation (adjustments) to usual medical care for the treatment of low back pain. 94 percent of the spinal manipulation group reported greater than 30 percent relief. The group receiving standard medical care reported greater than 30 percent relief in 69 percent of the study participants

6. Keeney et al published a study of workers compensation patients in 2012 in Spine. They found that seeing a chiropractor as your first encounter under the worker's compensation system dramatically decreased your odds of having back surgery. In the study, only 1.5 percent of injured workers who saw a chiropractor first had back surgery. However, if their first treatment in the worker's compensation was with an orthopedic surgeon, 42.7 percent of these low back patients when on to have back surgery.