Guidelines Should Encourage Patients to Utilize Chiropractic

The above is the essence of a release from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). It was in response to a report titled, "Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Pain: A Joint Clinical Practice Guideline from the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society" released on October 2, 2007 by Roger Chou, MD and other researchers.

The report was published in the scientific journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine and offers several suggestions for patients with back pain. One such suggestion is for patients who do not improve with self-care options. In these cases the report recommends that doctors should consider the addition of nonpharmacologic therapy with proven benefits, one of which they suggest is spinal manipulation.

Glenn Manceaux, DC, President of the ACA issued comments as a result of the report and stated, "As shown in the literature, chiropractic spinal manipulation is a very effective treatment for low-back pain and other musculoskeletal injuries."

Although several of the recommendations in the American College of Physicians report do suggest the use of medications, the ACA release points to several previous studies promoting a non drug approach. They noted that in one study published in 2003 in the medical journal Spine, manual manipulation showed better short-term relief of chronic spinal pain than did a variety of medications.

Dr. Manceaux, ACA president recommended, "If your back pain is not resolving quickly, visit your doctor of chiropractic." He continued, "Many chiropractic patients with relatively long-lasting or recurring back pain feel improvement shortly after starting chiropractic treatment. The relief and return to function they experience after a month of treatment is often greater than after seeing a family physician."