Chiropractic Research Summary, for patients and medical professionals

There is strong evidence showing that chiropractic is both safe and effective for back pain, neck pain, and headaches.

A growing body of scientific evidence supports chiropractic as the leader in safe, effective care for musculoskeletal conditions such as neck pain, back pain and headaches.  Chiropractic has been shown to get results for these conditions, faster than other approaches and with a higher degree of patient satisfaction and at a lower cost.  There is also evidence that chiropractic can help patients with a variety of other conditions, such as asthma and scoliosis.

Here are a few of the relevant studies:

Spine 2003 (Jul 15); 28 (14): 1490-1502

Chronic Spinal Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Medication, Acupuncture, and Spinal Manipulation

- This study found spinal manipulation, the primary treatment used by chiropractors to be the best overall for neck and back pain.

Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Verhoef et al. (1997)

- For Neck Pain and/or Back Pain:
"...patients suffering from back and/or neck complaints experience chiropractic care as an effective means of resolving or ameliorating pain and functional impairments, thus reinforcing previous results showing the benefits of chiropractic treatment for back and neck pain."

Duke Evidence Report, McCrory, Penzlen, Hasselblad, Gray (2001)

- For Headaches:
"Cervical spine manipulation was associated with significant improvement in headache outcomes in trials involving patients with neck pain and/or neck dysfunction and headache."

British Medical Journal, TW Meade - 1990

- Two-year study showed chiropractic was 2-1 more effective for lower back pain than traditional treatments.

Clinical Practice Guidelines, AHCPR (1994)

- For Acute Low-Back Problems:
"For patients with acute low-back symptoms without radiculopathy, the scientific evidence suggests spinal manipulation is effective in reducing pain and perhaps speeding recovery within the first month of symptoms."

Spine, Van Tulder and Bouter et al. (1997)
- For Long-Term Low-Back Problems:
"There is strong evidence that manipulation is more effective than a placebo treatment for chronic low-back pain or than usual care by the general practitioner, bed rest, analgesics and massage."

British Medical Journal, Meade et al. (1995)

- For Long-Term Low-Back Problems:
"...improvement in all patients at three years was about 29% more in those treated by chiropractors than in those treated by the hospitals. The beneficial effect of chiropractic on pain was particularly clear."

 British Medical Journal, Koes et al. (1992)

- For Long-Term Low-Back Problems: "Manipulative therapy and physiotherapy are better than traditional care and placebo treatment. Furthermore, manipulative therapy is slightly better than physiotherapy after 12 months."

Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Boline et al. (1995)

- For Headaches:
"The results of this study show that spinal manipulative therapy is an effective treatment for tension headaches. . . Four weeks after cessation of treatment . . . the patients who received spinal manipulative therapy experienced a sustained therapeutic benefit in all major outcomes in contrast to the patients that received amitriptyline therapy, who reverted to baseline values."

Annals of Internal Medicine – June 2003

- proves what the chiropractic profession has known for decades –

   “spinal manipulation, or chiropractic adjustment, is an effective alternative to drugs and surgery for back pain, one of the most pervasive conditions afflicting Americans today.”

Landmark 1998, 13

- Reported that chiropractic is the most frequently used non-medical health care and elicits high satisfaction from its users.

- 73% very satisfied

- 23% somewhat satisfied

The Manga Report (1993)

- For Pain:
“...for the management of low-back pain, chiropractic care is the most effective treatment, and it should be fully integrated into the government's health care system."

-  “Patients of chiropractors were highly satisfied with the care they received for back pain.” …All categories of survey sample considered chiropractors.

- Less likely to create new problems or make old problems worse

- More cost-effective: "There is an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that chiropractic management of low-back pain is more cost-effective than medical management… The lack of any convincing argument or evidence to the contrary must be noted and is significant to us in forming our conclusions and recommendations. The evidence includes studies showing lower chiropractic costs for the same diagnosis and episodic need for care."

- Safer: "There is no clinical or case-controlled study that demonstrates or even implies that chiropractic spinal manipulation is unsafe in the treatment of low-back pain. Some medical treatments are equally safe, but others are unsafe and generate iatrogenic (physician-induced) complications for low-back pain patients. Our reading of the literature suggests that chiropractic spinal manipulation is safer than medical management of low-back pain."