Chiropractic More Effective Than Usual Medical Care

Numerous international guidelines have endorsed the use of spinal manipulation as a treatment for acute back pain, however family physicians have been slow to adopt these guidelines.  No wonder it was reported in the latest JAMA that the cost of back and neck care has ballooned yet people reported increased disability.  Basically we are spending more and more for less results.  

This latest study, Chiropractic Hospital Based Interventions Research Outcomes Trial or C.H.I.R.O. for short found that evidence based care including chiropractic was far superior to usual care including physical therapy, bed rest and excessive use of narcotic analgesics.  It is not surprising that when given evidence based care patients improve more rapidly and have less disability in the long and short term.  Unfortunatly physicians in the United States rarely if ever follow evidence based care and guidelines for back pain.  If this continues look for costs to skyrocket even more and increasing disability in our population.