A Randomized Clinical Trial of Chiropractic Treatment and Self-Management in Patients With Acute Musculoskeletal Chest Pain: 1-Year Follow-Up
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 06/01/2012
Clinical Article
Stochkendahl MJ et al. – At the 1–year follow–up, the authors found no difference between groups in terms of pain intensity and self–perceived change in chest pain in the first randomized clinical trial assessing chiropractic treatment vs minimal intervention for patients with acute musculoskeletal chest pain. Further research into health care utilization and use of prescriptive medication is warranted.
Methods- In a nonblinded, randomized controlled trial undertaken at an emergency cardiology department and 4 outpatient chiropractic clinics, 115 consecutive patients with acute chest pain of musculoskeletal origin were included.
- After the baseline evaluation, patients were randomized to 4 weeks of either chiropractic treatment or self–management, with posttreatment questionnaire follow–up 52 weeks later.
- The primary outcome measures were change in pain intensity (11–point box numerical rating scale) and self–perceived change in pain (7–point ordinal scale).
- Both groups experienced decreases in pain, positive global, self–perceived treatment effect, and increases in the 36–Item Short Form Health Survey scores.
- No statistically significant differences were observed between groups at the 1–year follow–up, and the authors could not deduce a common trend in favor of either intervention.
