Research makes the healthcare world go ‘round! Research grounds
the role of healthcare’s relief of pain. In
chiropractic healthcare, much research revolves around providing
evidence of chiropractic’s benefit for painful musculoskeletal conditions like back pain, neck pain, arm
pain and sciatic leg pain. Satterwhite Chiropractic offers just such research-documented, effective care to our
Oxford chiropractic patients.
CHALLENGE: DO HIGH QUALITY RESEARCH
A set of back pain researchers
challenged fellow researchers to come up with long-term
plans to decrease the problem of low back pain
on patients and healthcare systems. They explained
that developing effective strategies continues to be a
daunting job for back pain clinicians, doctors, and
researchers. Vexingly, back pain disability levels have not
improved 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 achieved. Non-drug and non-invasive methods
like exercise, manual therapy, massage, and such are typical
recommendations. Other reviewing researchers indicated a few problems with back pain research: design
and analysis within the treatment clinical trials. (1) Designing research
studies is difficult. 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’s a topic for another article!) Observational studies are the next in line. How so? Researchers observe what happens to patients when they go
through treatment and note changes and effects. Fortuitously, Cox®
Technic research has a blend of biomechanical and clinical
observational studies resulting in case reports, case series, plus
retrospective and prospective clinical studies. Satterwhite Chiropractic feels this mix of
research support helps define to our Oxford chiropractic patients
what clinical outcome relief they may anticipate.
MINIMAL CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
Sometimes, chiropractic
physicians and low back pain patients alike find themselves disappointed
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 as an “effective” outcome. Cox® Technic has offered 50%
improvement in 30 days as the goal…and still does. Many
times, 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 getting
relief or only reaches 30% or 40%. Some patients desire more while
others, especially patients who have already
gone through back surgery or sought non-relieving care
from many other providers, are excited. A study
of 1232 low back pain subjects found a MCID pain intensity of
2 (meaning a 2 point change on a scale of 0 no pain to 10 worst
imaginable pain). That is not a big move but is realistic.
(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 Oxford chiropractic
clinical outcome objectives are high and frequently
achievable.
THE CHALLENGE OF CHIROPRACTIC RESEARCH – AND HOW CHIROPRACTIC
ANSWERS
Chiropractic, like other complementary and integrative
healthcare professions, has a little more effort
in maintaining a flow of research as many
programs are not in large university situations
with well-established and well-funded research departments. Global
chiropractic researchers are looking for a solution. Australia, Canada, and Denmark chiropractic
researchers have created 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 assemble
research talent and resources to advance
chiropractic’s quality and quantity of research. (3,4) Strong 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 Satterwhite 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 Oxford
chiropractic appointment today. Bring your questions about the research
behind our chiropractic care with you! Satterwhite Chiropractic is always
ready to share research!