Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care is appropriate for treating chronic pain at any point during an individual's healthcare experience.

Chiropractic Care – Evidence Rating: Low to Moderate Quality

Evidence describing chiropractic care and spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) comes from multiple systematic reviews, especially for low back pain and neck pain, citing low to moderate quality evidence of effectiveness. These reviews draw from a mix of study designs, including randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and observational studies. While there are a number of randomized controlled trials evaluating chiropractic care and SMT, most are rated low to moderate quality due to the inherent difficulty in blinding participants to the intervention. The body of real-world evidence plays a significant role in its widespread use - common for interventions with established efficacy and patient satisfaction like chiropractic care. While chiropractic care and spinal manipulation are often recommended in various clinical practice guidelines for spinal pain conditions, evidence on translation and implementation into practice is an opportunity for further study.

Evidence-based Scale

Individuals may seek chiropractic care at any point in their healthcare experience for acute, subacute, or chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions. It is common for individuals to have periods of improvement and setbacks upon initiating chiropractic care, as is the case for all treatment of musculoskeletal pain conditions. While more studies are needed, some patient characteristics have been linked to the benefits of chiropractic care and spinal manipulation. People who have experienced greater pain frequency in the past six months, have seen reduced effectiveness of pain medication, or increased effectiveness of strengthening exercises are all indications that a patient may benefit from chiropractic care.