Latest Study Questions Spinal Manipulative Therapy

Just noticed this on Stephen Barrett's on-line Quackwatch newsletter:

"Review questions spinal manipulative therapy. A comprehensive review has concluded that spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is no more effective for acute low back pain than inert interventions, sham SMT. or as adjunct therapy, and also seems to be no better than other recommended therapies. The reviewers looked at 20 randomized controlled trials with a total of 2,674 participants. The studies varied greatly in quality and contained very little data on recovery, return-to-work, quality of life, or costs of care. [Rubinstein SM and others. Spinal manipulative therapy for acute low back pain: An update of the Cochrane Review. Spine 38:E158-E177, 2013]"

Here's the link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23169072

Of course, this review just echoes previous findings and confirms what Dr Sarno has been saying for years. Certainly sounds as though chiropractic cures and the placebo effect are one and the same.

 

Interesting, Bruce. I went to chiropractors for years for back pain and would have sworn that it helped. Then I found Sarno and was "cured". Must have had a twinge, though, because I went back to my chiropractor one time and the result was truly agonizing tmj pain for nine months. Then one day my husband reached over and pressed on my neck and the tmj vanished without a trace.

I wonder what Quackwatch would make of Dr. Sarno's theories. I couldn't find him there but I know there are those who criticize his science.

It will be nice when (if?) we figure all this out and can start thinking about something else besides what to do about chronic pain

 

I can't recall of an instance where Dr Barrett has pooh poohed Dr Sarno's TMS theory. However, he does quite often take chiropractors to task as unscientific scamsters. I do know that Dr Sarno says in Healing Back Pain that you aren't completely over TMS until you have renounced going to physical therapy of any kind, including chiropractic manipulation, since a physical procedure will reinforce the idea that TMS pain is caused by a structural anomaly rather than a psychological condition. This new study seems to confirm Dr Sarno's position.