Spinal manipulation for low back pain
One page on PainSci cites Hoehler 1981: Does Spinal Manipulation Work?
PainSci notes on Hoehler 1981:
This study supports the usefulness of spinal adjustment for acute pain only. From the abstract: “Patients who received [spinal] manipulative treatment were much more likely to report immediate relief after the first treatment.” However, “at discharge there was no significant difference between the two groups because both showed substantial improvement.”
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
A randomized clinical trial of rotational manipulation was conducted on 95 patients with low back pain selected for (1) the absence of any contraindications for vertebral manipulation, (2) the absence of any psychosocial problems that might affect the outcome of treatment, (3) the absence of any previous experience with manipulative therapy, and (4) the presence of palpatory cues indicating that manipulation might be successful. Patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups: an experimental group receiving manipulation therapy and a control group receiving soft-tissue massage. Comparison of the two groups indicated that (1) patients who received manipulative treatment were much more likely to report immediate relief after the first treatment, and (2) at discharge, there was no significant difference between the two groups because both showed substantial improvement.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Placebo analgesia in physical and psychological interventions: Systematic review and meta-analysis of three-armed trials. Hohenschurz-Schmidt 2024 Eur J Pain.
- Recovery trajectories in common musculoskeletal complaints by diagnosis contra prognostic phenotypes. Aasdahl 2021 BMC Musculoskelet Disord.
- Cannabidiol (CBD) products for pain: ineffective, expensive, and with potential harms. Moore 2023 J Pain.
- Moderators of the effect of therapeutic exercise for knee and hip osteoarthritis: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. Holden 2023 The Lancet Rheumatology.
- Inciting events associated with lumbar disc herniation. Suri 2010 Spine J.