Chiropractic care Most Economic Option for Neck Discomfort

Suffering with neck pain in Reisterstown, MD? Did you know that chiropractic has been shown to be the most economical way to help you recover? Dr. Bache is here to help you. Give our office a call at (410) 833-8877 today.

Over the years, we have helped many people in Reisterstown, MD recover from persistent neck pain. This isn't unusual, as research demonstrates that chiropractic leads to significant improvements for 94% of neck pain patients. But how does chiropractic contrast to other conservative treatments in the management of neck pain?

To answer that question, it's helpful to look back at an important study from 2003 published in the British Medical Journal. The research investigated various conservative treatments and concluded that manual therapy was the most economical option for neck pain.

Researchers from the Netherlands were interested in assessing not only the costs linked with manual therapy but how efficiently manual therapy provided relief 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).

People receiving manual therapy had the speediest recovery rate. After seven weeks of care, 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 compute costs of treatments, the researchers considered direct costs such as visits to the healthcare provider and the costs of prescription drugs, in addition to indirect costs like work absenteeism and travel time. The manual therapy group had substantially reduced 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 about $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 claimed missed work due to neck pain, compared to 12 in the PT group and 15 in the GP group.

The lowered cost likely stemmed from the fact that MT patients were using considerably less prescription drugs and needed fewer treatment interventions due to quicker recovery rates. The authors concluded that manual therapy, particularly spinal mobilization, is less expensive and more successful at relieving neck pain than physiotherapy or care from a general practitioner.

Dr. Bache has worked with many people who have suffered from neck pain. If you live in Reisterstown, MD and would like to stop suffering from chronic neck pain, give our office a call at (410) 833-8877 for a consultation.

Korthals-de Bos IB, et al. Cost effectiveness of physiotherapy, manual therapy, and general practitioner. British Medical Journal 2003;326:911.