This new, single blinded placebo controlled study, conducted by the Faculty of Medicine at Mansoura University, conclusively demonstrates that maintenance care provides significant benefits for those with chronic low back pain.

BACKGROUND: Spinal adjustments is a common treatment option for low back pain. Numerous clinical trials have attempted to evaluate its effectiveness for different subgroups of acute and chronic LBP previously, but the efficacy of maintenance adjustments in chronic non-specific LBP has never been studied.

In this study, 60 patients with chronic, nonspecific LBP lasting at leas 6 months were randomized into 3 groups:

1. One third of them received 12 treatments of sham adjustments (fake) over a one-month
2. One third of them received 12 treatments of adjustments during a one-month period, with no follow-up care during the next nine months, and
3. One third of them received 12 Chiropractic adjustments during the first month, followed by “maintenance” adjustments every two weeks, for the next nine months.

To determine any difference among these 3 care groups, researchers measured pain and disability scores, generic health status, and back-specific patient satisfaction at baseline, and at 1-month, 4-months, 7-months, and at 10-months

RESULTS: Patients in groups (groups 2 & 3) experienced significantly lower pain and disability scores than the sham group at the end of the first 1-month period.

At the 10-month follow-up, only the maintenance group maintained improvements in pain and disability, while the group that only received 1-months care had reverted to their pretreatment pain and disability levels.

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first medically managed trial that clearly demonstrates that maintenance care provides significant benefits to those who suffer from chronic low back pain.

SOURCE: Does Maintained Spinal Manipulation Therapy for Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain Result in Better Long Term Outcome?

Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2011 Jan 17.