Chiropractic refers to a health care profession that uses alternative and complementary treatment in order to offer healing approach that is concerned with doing diagnosis, treatment, as well as prevention of various disorders that affect the neuromusculoskeletal system. The practice emphasizes on the manual therapy such as joint manipulation, as well as adjustment focusing mainly on the joint dysfunction. The increased cases of back pain and its recurrent and chronic nature in most of the patients are well known. However, there is no general consensus that exists concerning the best treatment that is effective. The greatest improvement has been reported when the alternative practitioners, as well as chiropractors, use manipulative treatment (Meade, Dyer and Browne, Townsend, and Frank).
In the treatment of low back pain, the chiropractors require radiographs from patients to diagnose the disease. The patient is then undergoes sacroiliac or sacral manipulation, thoracic, cervical, hip, ischium and pelvis manipulations. Manipulation of more than one level of the spine is also used. Other treatments that are applied include brief localized massage, ice packs as well as doing exercise (Daniel et al).
Comparing the use of chiropractic with the management of outpatients having low back pain in conventional hospital, two main forms are used. One of the forms is the pragmatic trial that is used in testing the events that take place in day to day practices as well as in which details of the frequency, type, and treatment duration would be at the discernment of the hospital team or chiropractor. The main disadvantage with this form is that in a case of a clear difference existing between the treatments, it may be hard to point out the responsible component of treatment that is more successful. The other form is the fastidious trial that may be used in the comparison of chiropractic manipulation with a specific form of physiotherapy that is non-manipulative. The advantage of this form is the identification of the specific treatment components that are effective (Meade, Dyer and Browne, Townsend, and Frank).
The chiropractic has long-term effects in a study done by Meade, Dyer and Browne, Townsend, and Frank (1990) as there is no consistent in the evidence there is a return to Oswestry scores for pretreatment in the two years period that the follow up was done. Those who were treated in the hospital may have started experiencing deterioration after half or one year. The effectiveness of chiropractic was particularly witnessed in patients who had pain that was fairly intractable, those with a history of the disease, as well as those with severe pain. Most of the patients who were treated by chiropractic were satisfied and relieved soon after six weeks, when more than 90% of the patients provided data for follow up, strengthening the chances of fact that the differences in that exists in the Oswestry scores, as well as other variables, were true differences. In addition, the results that were obtained from the secondary outcome measures gave a suggestion that the advantage of chiropractic begins to be seen soon after treatment was started. This may be as a result of the fact that the treatment received from the hospital is mostly effective in the short term. This is perhaps due to the fact that the treatment is not offered for a long term as it is in the case of chiropractic.
In another research done by same researchers in 1995, the results for the total Oswestry scores had improved in all patients treated by chiropractors by about 29% above the scores of those treated in hospitals. There was a beneficial effect that was clear resulting from chiropractic treatment. This confirms that chiropractic treatment of people having low back pain results to better and more benefits that are long living as compared to the treatment obtained from hospitals (Meade, Dyer, Browne, and Frank).
Other studies have compared chiropractic manipulation with physical therapy and found that both methods had similar effects on symptoms, satisfaction with care, function, disability, back pain recurrence as well as with the subsequent visits that were done due to back pain. Although chiropractic used more visits than the physical therapy, the total time was almost the same (Daniel et al).
These findings give an indication that chiropractic manipulation is one of the best treatment options that is effective in the management of low back pain.
Works Cited
Daniel, C., Cherkin, P., Richard, A., Deyo, M.D., Battié, M., Street, J., Barlow, W. "A Comparison of Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Manipulation, and Provision of an Educational Booklet for the Treatment of Patients with Low Back Pain." N Engl J Med 339 (1998): 1021-1029. Print.
Meade, T. W., Dyer, S., Browne, W., Townsend, J., Frank, A. 0. "Low back pain of mechanical origin: randomised comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient treatment." British Medical Journal 300 (1990): 1431-1437. Print.
Meade, T. W., Dyer, S. Browne, W., Frank, A. O. "Randomised comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient management for low back pain: results from extended follow up." British Medical Journal 311 (1995): 349. Print.
