More bad news for chiropractors

Some chiropractors claim that their main intervention, spinal manipulation, works for nonspecific neck pain by improving inter-vertebral range of motion (IV-RoM). But IV-RoM is difficult to measure, and whether it is related to clinical outcomes seems uncertain. Researchers from the Institute of Musculoskeletal Research & Clinical Implementation and the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic have just published a study that might throw some light on this issue. According to its authors, it was aimed at answering the following research questions:

• Does cervical spine flexion and extension IV-RoM increase after a course of spinal manipulation?
• Is there a relationships between any IV-RoM increases and clinical outcomes?
• How does palpation compare with objective measurement in the detection of hypo-mobile segments?

Thirty patients with nonspecific neck pain and 30 healthy controls matched for age and gender received quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) screenings to measure flexion and extension IV-RoM (C1-C6) at baseline and 4-week follow-up. Patients received up to 12 neck manipulations and completed NRS, NDI and Euroqol 5D-5L at baseline, plus PGIC and satisfaction questionnaires at follow-up. IV-RoM accuracy, repeatability and hypo-mobility cut-offs were determined. Minimal detectable changes (MDC) over 4 weeks were calculated from controls. Patients and control IV-RoMs were compared at baseline as well as changes in patients over 4 weeks. Correlations between outcomes and the number of manipulations received and the agreement (Kappa) between palpated and QF-detected of hypo-mobile segments were calculated...

Read more here: More bad news for chiropractors