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Over the years, we have helped many men and women in Daphne, AL recover from chronic neck pain. This isn't surprising, as research shows that chiropractic care leads to significant improvements for 94% of neck pain patients. But how does chiropractic contrast to other conservative therapies in the management of neck pain?
To answer this question, it's helpful to look back at an important study from 2003 printed in the British Medical Journal. The study reviewed a variety of conservative treatments and concluded that manual therapy was the most cost-effective choice for neck pain.
Researchers from the Netherlands were interested in comparing not only the costs associated with manual therapy but how successfully manual therapy provided relief when compared to other treatments. They randomly assigned 183 patients with acute neck pain to receive care from manual therapists (MT), physiotherapists (PT), or general practitioners (GP).
Patients receiving manual therapy had the speediest recovery rate. After seven weeks of treatment, 68% of the MT group had recovered, compared to 51% of the PT group and 36% of the GP group. These differences in recovery rates were still statistically significant after 26 weeks but not after 52 weeks.
To calculate costs of treatments, the researchers considered direct costs such as visits to the healthcare provider and the costs of prescription medications, in addition to indirect costs like work absenteeism and travel time. The manual therapy group had substantially lower costs, with patients spending only a third of the costs spent by patients in the PT and GP groups. On average, manual therapy patients had approximately $611 in costs compared to $1773 in the physiotherapy group and $1885 in the general practitioner group (or 447 euros, 1297 euros, and 1379 euros, respectively). Only 9 patients in the MT group reported missed work due to neck pain, compared to 12 in the PT group and 15 in the GP group.
The reduced cost likely stemmed from the fact that MT patients were using substantially less prescription medications and required fewer treatment interventions due to quicker recovery rates. The authors concluded that manual therapy, particularly spinal mobilization, is less expensive and more successful at treating neck pain than physical therapy or care from a general practitioner.
Dr. Smith has worked with many people who have suffered from neck pain. If you live in Daphne, AL and would like to stop suffering from chronic neck pain, give our office a call at (251) 621-2224 for a consultation.
Korthals-de Bos IB, et al. Cost effectiveness of physiotherapy, manual therapy, and general practitioner. British Medical Journal 2003;326:911.