 |
 |
|
|
| |
|
Office Hours: |
Monday 8a-6p
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 8a-6p
Thursday 8a-6p
Friday 7:30a-2:30p |
| |
|
|
|
Study Shows Chiropractic
Better Than Muscle Relaxants for Low Back Pain
A study published in the July / August 2004
peer-reviewed scientific journal, "Journal of
Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics", compared
the effects of chiropractic adjustments to muscle
relaxants in a group of patients with subacute low back
pain.
This study defined subacute low back pain as lower back
pain (LBP) with a duration of 2 to 12 weeks. The study
noted that in the United States the incidence of low
back pain is as high as 75% to 85% of the population
being affected at some time in their lives. On a yearly
basis, the study noted that between 15% to 20% of the
adult population can expect to experience LBP in any
given year.
In the study, conducted at Life University in Georgia,
192 subjects with LBP from 2 to 6 weeks were separated
into three groups. One group received Chiropractic
adjustments with placebo medication. The second group
received muscle relaxants with sham (fake) adjustments.
The third group was a control group and received both
placebo medication as well as the sham (fake)
adjustments. Care was rendered to the group for a 4 week
period with evaluations being done at the 2 week and 4
week marks.
Results were measured in terms of patient reported pain,
severity, disability and depression, as well as measured
flexibility and the patients self usage of over the
counter acetaminophen (Tylenol). The results of this
short study showed that for the two primary indicators
of pain and severity, the chiropractic group did better
than the other two groups. No significant differences
were seen for disability, depression, flexibility, or
acetaminophen usage across groups in a study of this
short a period of time. All three groups showed
improvement in the areas of depression, disability and
drug usage.
The authors of the study did note that a longer study
could have yielded more differences in recovery.
However, in the area of pain, a primary patient concern
in subacute LBP cases, the group that received the
chiropractic adjustments faired the best. Their comments
were: "Statistically, the chiropractic group responded
significantly better than the control group with respect
to a decrease in pain scores."
|
|
|
