- BOSTON (Reuters) - Chiropractic and physical therapy are slightly better
than routine treatment for back pain and the human touch they involve appears
to make the difference, researchers reported in Thursday's New England
Journal of Medicine. A back experiment compared chiropractic manipulations
of the spine to a popular form of physical therapy known as the McKenzie
method. Researchers at the University of Washington at Seattle found the
two techniques worked equally well, and were slightly more effective than
conventional care. Standard care often involves treatment by an orthopedist,
who gives the patient mild pain killers, muscle relaxants and exercises,
as well as an educational booklet. ``It looks as if both physical therapy
and chiropractic care are better than routine care and a booklet alone,''
Dr. Richard A. Deyo, a member of the team, said in an interview. The study
also found that, compared to people who received the educational booklet
and standard care, the two-year cost of care averaged $280 more for the
person who saw the physical therapist and $276 more for the chiropractic
treatment. There was a huge difference in the satisfaction rating among
the 321 adults who took part in the study. Only 30 percent of the booklet
recipients were pleased with their treatment, while 75 percent of those
who received physical therapy or chiropractic treatment rated their care
as very good or excellent. ``Having someone concerned about you and taking
you seriously may be an important part'' of back treatment, Deyo said.
In another experiment, researchers studied the effects of chiropractic
treatment on asthma. They found that symptoms improved whether the chiropractors
used real or fake adjustments to the spine. In an editorial in the Journal,
Dr. Paul G. Shekelle of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center
said the back pain study confirms that ``spinal manipulation is a somewhat
effective'' therapy for relieving the symptoms of some patients. The asthma
study may be largely academic, Shekelle said, because fewer than 1 percent
of patients who go to chiropractors seek help for asthma. Some 80 children
with asthma received either real or sham treatments by the 11 chiropractors
participating in the first study, led by Dr. Jeffrey Balon of the Canadian
Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto. They found the youngsters breathed
a bit easier, used less medicine and had fewer symptoms. But the improvements
were the same whether they received real adjustments or useless body manipulations.
``The addition of chiropractic spinal manipulation to usual medical care
for four months had no effect on the control of childhood asthma,'' Balon's
team concluded. ^REUTERS@
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