Research makes the healthcare world go ‘round! Research solidifies
the role of healthcare’s pain relieving ability. For
chiropractic healthcare, much research entails documenting chiropractic’s benefit for painful musculoskeletal pain
issues like neck pain, back pain, arm
pain and sciatic leg pain. Moses Chiropractic delivers just such research-documented, effective care to our
West Palm Beach chiropractic patients.
CHALLENGE: DO HIGH QUALITY RESEARCH
A group of back pain researchers
challenged fellow researchers to develop long-term
plans to lower the burden of low back pain
on sufferers and healthcare systems. They explained
that developing effective strategies remains a
daunting task for back pain clinicians, doctors, and
researchers. Vexingly, back pain disability levels have not
increased despite an increased quantity of
published research papers about back pain care.
No consensus on the optimal way to handle low back pain
has been agreed upon. Non-drug and non-invasive options
like exercise, manual therapy, massage, and such are typical
recommendations. Another group of reviewing researchers indicated a few problems with back pain research: design
and analysis within the treatment clinical trials. (1) Designing research
studies is tough. Coming up with a “sham”
protocol for spinal manipulation that seems like spinal
manipulation is really challenging. (Just touching a spine can
help some, but that is a topic for a
different discussion!) Observational studies are the next in line. How so? Researchers observe how
patients respond when they experience treatment and report
on changes and effects. Fortunately, Cox®
Technic research has a mix of biomechanical and clinical
observational studies resulting in case reports, case series, as well as
retrospective and prospective clinical studies. Moses Chiropractic feels this mix of
research support helps outline the expectations our West Palm Beach chiropractic
patients may anticipate.
MINIMAL CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
Sometimes, chiropractic
physicians and low back pain patients alike are frustrated
with the outcomes of treatment for back pain. They should not
be! In medicine, the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) is defined
as 30% or 20% and even 10% improvement. That’s reported to
be an “effective” outcome. Cox® Technic has proposed 50%
improvement in 30 days as the aim…and still does. Often, chiropractic patients find that 50% relief in fewer
than 30 days and that the 50% relief is more like
70% or 80% or 90%! Sometimes, a patient’s response may be slower in attaining
relief or only reaches 30% or 40%. Some patients want more while
others, particularly patients who have previously
undergone back surgery or sought non-relieving care
from many other providers, are quite satisfied. A study
of 1232 low back pain subjects discovered a MCID pain intensity of
2 (meaning a 2 point move on a scale of 0 no pain to 10 worst
imaginable pain). That is not a huge move but is reasonable.
(2) It is a statistic to share. Compared
with medical and surgical outcomes for back pain treatment that are as low
as 10% or 30% expected improvement MCID, our West Palm Beach chiropractic
clinical outcome goals are high and frequently
achievable.
THE CHALLENGE OF CHIROPRACTIC RESEARCH – AND HOW CHIROPRACTIC
ANSWERS
Chiropractic, like other complementary and integrative
healthcare professions, experiences a little more difficulty
in keeping research flowing as many
programs are not in large university situations
with well-established and well-funded research departments. Global
chiropractic researchers are seeking am amswer. Australia, Canada, and Denmark chiropractic
researchers have formed a leadership academy (CARL – Chiropractic
Academy for Research Leadership) for early-career chiropractic researchers to promote
more chiropractic research. US-based researchers are turning to
the RAND Corporation’s Center for Collaborative CIH Research to pool
research talent and resources to elevate
chiropractic’s quality and quantity of research. (3,4) Robust research continues at chiropractic universities to document the
benefits of chiropractic for musculoskeletal-related pain like back pain, neck
pain, arm pain and leg pain.
CONTACT Moses Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Ram Gudavalli, PhD, principal investigator of many Cox® Technic research
studies, on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
describes research studies of which he’s been a
part.
Make your next West Palm Beach
chiropractic appointment soon. Bring your questions about the research
supporting our chiropractic care with you! Moses Chiropractic is always
ready to share research!