Spinal manipulation may provide broader and more significant long-term benefit for chronic spinal pain patients than acupuncture and medication.
Muller R, Giles LGF. Long-Term Follow-Up of a Randomized Clinical Trial Assessing the Efficacy of Medication, Acupuncture, and Spinal Manipulation for Chronic Mechanical Spinal Pain Syndromes. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2005;28(1):3-11.
BACKGROUND
Chronic mechanical back pain and neck pain, which are often caused by an injury or disease, present a diagnostic and treatment challenge and pose a significant financial strain on the health care system. Some evidence shows that a multidisciplinary team approach to treating spinal pain results in high patient satisfaction. The evidence about the superiority of a particular treatment for non-specific chronic spinal pain is inconclusive.
THE OBJECTIVE of this study was to assess the long-term effect of medication, needle acupuncture and spinal manipulation on treating patients with chronic (> 13 weeks) spinal pain.
THIS STUDY conducted a one-year follow-up of a randomized clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of medication (Celebrex, Vioxx and/or acetaminophen), acupuncture or high-velocity low-amplitude spinal manipulation on treating chronic spinal pain. Sixty-nine patients were randomized into three treatment groups, receiving one type of treatment for nine weeks. The one-year follow-up was conducted through Oswestry Back Pain Index, Neck Disability Index, Short-Form-36 and Visual Analog Scales. The study analyzed the results of treatment of 40 patients who had received only one randomly allocated type of treatment.
RESULTS
Comparison of the initial and long-term follow-up questionnaires produced the following results:
• Only the group receiving spinal manipulation showed long-term treatment benefit, with five of the original seven improvements remaining statistically significant after one year.
• Only one of seven improvements remained statistically significant in each of the acupuncture and the medication treatment groups at follow-up.
CONCLUSION
For treating chronic spinal pain, spinal manipulation, if not contraindicated, may provide broader and more significant long-term benefits than acupuncture or pain-relief medication.

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Dr. Dao Tran and Dr. Quan Tran graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic College of Los Angeles. Together, they have over 18 years of combined experience providing Chiropractic treatment for the injured and Lifestyle Chiropractic care to help their patients achieve optimum health and maintain peak performance. They have two Chiropractic offices in Southern California – Orange County-Fountain Valley and South Bay-Lawndale.
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(Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)