The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 10)

The Chiropractic Forward Podcast: Evidence-based Chiropractic Advocacy

CF 323: The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 10) Today we’re going to talk about The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 10). Yes, every other week we are covering the papers that the World Health Organization used to recommend spinal manipulative therapy at ‘very low confidence’. What we’ve seen so far are papers that are either very old, very small sample sizes, or prone to bias. But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

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OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are giving evidence-based chiropractic a little personality and making it profitable. We’re not the stuffy, elitist, pretentious kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. So grab you a bushel.

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together. Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, smarts, personality, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at [e-mail] If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

• Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent resource for you and is categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
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You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #323 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Young Athletes With CTE & Catastrophizing, Fear Avoidance, and Pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things….. We just returned from the big West Texas TCA Conference down in Lubbock, TX. What a great time. It’s always great to re-connect with your tribe. I say re-connect because it’s been a good year since I was in the same room with my TCA family. TCA, if you’re not familiar is the Texas Chiropractic Association. Anyway, last year during this conference, I was already committed to VOAtlanta, a voice conference in Atlanta. So I couldn’t attend this one. Then for the summer ChiroTexpo event, I was on an Alaskan cruise so was unable to attend that event down in Dallas. So yeah, it’s been over a year since I got to hang out with my Texas chiropractic clan.

It was a weekend of re-connecting, introducing our intern Dontae, to the Texas family, and even teaching. I taught an hour course called, “Revolutionize Your Practice: Strategies For Taming Chronic Pain & The Upregulated Central Nervous System”. It’s really a 2-hour class but I’ve condensed it into and hour with the pedal to the metal. Y’all should know by now that I’m on a mission to get this message out and stop some of our chiro brethren from scaring patient into treatment plans. It really is a passion and a mission.

If you know of any state associations or groups that need this message, please reach out at [e-mail]. I’d love to come share my message with your group. Dontae, our intern got integrated into our Texas chiro family. I feel like it was the weekend of Dontae really.

Everyone loved the guy. He’s hard to not like, honestly.

He’s going to be super successful when he gets his feet under himself. Like I said last week, conferences aren’t all about what you learn in the sessions. It’s as much about the connections and your network. The stronger your network, the stronger the provider. I promise. Raise your hand, step forward, and get involved. You’ll be glad you did.

Also, I got to hang out with my buddy, Dr. Benjamin Fergus from Evanston, Illinois and the GRIP program. Ben is just phenomenal. He knows his stuff and has been a big big hit with our providers each time he’s taught for the TCA. Good times. But now, back to work so let’s get the research rolling.

Item #1 Our first one today is called, “Does maintained spinal manipulation therapy for chronic nonspecific low back pain result in better long-term outcome?” By Senna et. Al. and published in Spine on August 15, 2011 Remember, the citations can be found at chiropracticforward.com under this episode. Senna MK, Machaly SA. Does maintained spinal manipulation therapy for chronic nonspecific low back pain result in better long-term outcome? Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2011 Aug 15;36(18):1427-37. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181f5dfe0. PMID: 21245790.

Why They Did It To assess the effectiveness of spinal manipulation therapy (SMT) for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain (LBP) and to determine the effectiveness of maintenance SMT in long-term reduction of pain and disability levels associated with chronic low back conditions after an initial phase of treatments.

How They Did It Sixty patients, with chronic, nonspecific LBP lasting at least 6 months, were randomized to receive either

1. 12 treatments of sham SMT over a 1-month period,
2. 12 treatments, consisting of SMT over a 1-month period, but no treatments for the subsequent 9 months, or
3. 12 treatments over a 1-month period, along with “maintenance spinal manipulation” every 2 weeks for the following 9 months.

To determine any difference among therapies, they measured pain and disability scores, generic health status, and back-specific patient satisfaction at baseline and at 1-, 4-, 7-, and 10-month intervals.

What They Found Patients in second and third groups experienced significantly lower pain and disability scores than first group at the end of 1-month period. However, only the third group that was given spinal manipulations (SM) during the follow-up period showed more improvement in pain and disability scores at the 10-month evaluation. In the non-nmaintained SMT group, however, the mean pain and disability scores returned back near to their pre-treatment level.

Wrap It Up SMT is effective for the treatment of chronic nonspecific LBP. To obtain long-term benefit, this study suggests maintenance SM after the initial intensive manipulative therapy. That one’s not only in our favor and a RCT, but it’s also in support of ongoing wellness. Nice paper for the home team. Put a check in the win column for the good guys!

Item #2 The second one today is called, “Immediate effects of joint mobilization compared to sham and control intervention for pain intensity and disability in chronic low back pain patients: randomized controlled clinical trial” by Tavares, et. Al. published in Revisita Dor in 2017. Tavares FAG, Chaves TC, Silva ED, Guerreiro GD, Gonçalves JF, Albuquerque AAA de. Immediate effects of joint mobilization compared to sham and control intervention for pain intensity and disability in chronic low back pain patients: randomized controlled clinical trial [Internet]. Revista Dor. 2017 ; 18( 1): 2-7.[citado 2024 mar. 25 ] Available from: https://doi.org/10.5935/1806-0013.20170002

Before jumping into this one, this paper was in Spanish and I couldn’t find the English version anywhere so I ran it through Google’s AI engine called Gemini and it spit the English version right out for me! Bam. Another tip from your ol’ uncle Jeffro!

Why They Did It One of the possible treatments for chronic low back pain is joint mobilization. There is moderate evidence in the literature on the effects of mobilization for chronic low back pain, however, few studies have used sham mobilization as a comparison group. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of lumbar joint mobilization on the following outcomes: pain intensity and disability in patients with chronic low back pain.

How They Did It 60 individuals of both sexes were selected with the following eligibility criteria: age between 18 and 55 years, who had non-specific chronic low back pain for at least three months. The selected volunteers were randomly assigned to three groups of 20 individuals: joint mobilization group, sham mobilization group, and control groups. All groups were evaluated by the same blinded researcher and answered the following instruments before and immediately after the 10 intervention sessions:

• Numerical pain scale for pain intensity assessment,
• Oswestry Disability Index for pain-related disability assessment, and
• Catastrophic Thinking Scale for pain-related catastrophization assessment.

What They Found

• Significant pre- and post-treatment differences were observed for the pain intensity variable in the mobilization and the sham groups.
• In the comparison between the intervention groups, a significant difference was found in the mean pain intensity value between mobilization versus control groups

Wrap It Up These results suggest effects related to the application of mobilization in patients with chronic lumbar pain Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

The Message I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point: At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints…. That’s Chiropractic!

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Connect We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

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