Chiropractic Superior to PT’s and MD Care for Low Back Pain

Chiropractic has always said – fix the root cause don’t just bandaid the pain and this study validates this simple chiropractic principle and we have always known we were safe – but not necessarily how safe – until you read this!
Approximately 900 patients were followed for one year after being treated for disabling low back pain that was caused on the job. It was discovered that patients that utilized physical therapy and/or medical interventions had a higher recurrence of disability as opposed to patients that underwent chiropractic care. Patients were TWICE as likely to end up with disabling low back pain with a physical therapist (PT) and almost 66% more likely to be in disabling pain when receiving traditional medical care.
This study is was conducted by the Center for Disability Research at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Hopkinton, Mass; and the Center for Health Economics & Science Policy at United BioSource Corporation, London, United Kingdom.
Their objective was to compare the occurrences of repeated disability episodes between types of health care providers, who treat claimants with new episodes of work-related low back pain (LBP). They followed 894 patients over 1-year, using workers’ compensation claims data.
The authors concluded: “In work-related nonspecific LBP, the use of health maintenance care provided by physical therapist or physician services was associated with a higher disability recurrence than with chiropractic services or no treatment.”
Health Maintenance Care in Work-Related Low Back Pain and Its Association With Disability Recurrence. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2011 (Mar 14)