Top Chiropractic Research from 2022
Check out the top chiropractic content from 2023 here!
Medline contains more than 28 million references, with over one million new citations added each year. Keeping up is tough, but the ChiroUp research team makes it easier by scouring and summarizing freshly published literature to mine out fresh chiropractic clinical pearls and best practice data. The following up-to-date chiropractic research review offers ten new studies impacting our patients and practices.
1. Chiropractic Patients Use Fewer Opioids
"In this study [of 40,929 low back pain patients], we found that receipt of chiropractic care, though not physical therapy, may have disrupted the need for opioids and, in particular, long-term opioid use in newly diagnosed LBP."
This concurs with several other recent studies showing that chiropractic patients have a lower risk of drug use and associated side effects.
Deeper Dive: Relay the positive news to your patients and social media followers with the ChiroUp Opioid Whitepaper
Acharya M, Chopra D, Smith AM, Fritz JM, Martin BC. Associations Between Early Chiropractic Care and Physical Therapy on Subsequent Opioid Use Among Persons With Low Back Pain in Arkansas. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine. 2022 May 21. Link
2. SMT Does Not Increase Stroke Risk (again)
"Among [53 million patients] aged 65 and older who received cervical spinal manipulation, the risk of cervical artery dissection is no greater."
This follows a 2022 JMMT study showing vertebral arteries “were not stretched” during HVLA.
Deeper Dive: Download the updated Safety of SMT infographic, then watch this Cervical Manipulation & Stroke webinar where Drs Tom Michaud, James Demetrious, Brandon Steele, and Tim Bertelsman provide an in-depth look at the etiology, assessment, and recognition of cervical arterial dissection, plus SMT/stroke data.
Whedon JM, Petersen CL, Li Z, Schoelkopf WJ, Haldeman S, MacKenzie TA, Lurie JD. Association between cervical artery dissection and spinal manipulative therapy–a medicare claims analysis. BMC Geriatrics. 2022 Dec;22(1):1-9.
3. SMT Decreases Disc Surgery Odds
"Our findings suggest receiving chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy compared with other care for newly diagnosed lumbar disc herniation and lumbosacral radiculopathy is associated with significantly reduced odds of discectomy over 2-year follow-up."
Deeper Dive: Use the ChiroUp Natural Solutions infographic to spread the news.
Trager RJ, Daniels CJ, Perez JA, Casselberry RM, Dusek JA. Association between chiropractic spinal manipulation and lumbar discectomy in adults with lumbar disc herniation and radiculopathy: retrospective cohort study using United States’ data. BMJ Open. 2022 Dec 1;12(12):e068262. Link
4. Nerve Mobilization Helps Sciatica
"Neural mobilisations seem beneficial to reduce pain and disability in spinally referred leg pain independent of the criteria used to interpret neurodynamic tests."
Deeper Dive: Check out this recent ChiroUp video tutorial of Four Simple Nerve Flossing Exercises to Help Resolve Back and Leg Pain.
Murape T, Ainslie TR, Basson CA, Schmid AB. Does the efficacy of neurodynamic treatments depend on the presence and type of criteria used to define neural mechanosensitivity in spinally-referred leg pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis. The South African Journal of Physiotherapy. 2022;78(1). Link
5. SMT Beats Prescription Drug Therapy
"Recipients of [chiropractic] SMT were more likely to be very satisfied with their care (84%) than recipients of prescription drug therapy (50%). The SMT cohort self-reported significantly higher health-related quality of life compared to the prescription drug therapy cohort. The SMT cohort had a lower degree of concern regarding chiropractic care for their back pain compared to the prescription drug therapy cohort's reported concern about prescription drug therapy.”
Deeper Dive: Check out the ChiroUp Clinical Outcomes and Patient Satisfaction Synopsis (COPS) detailing chiropractic outcomes, satisfaction, affordability, and safety of more than 630,000 presentations.
Kizhakkeveettil A, Bezdjian S, Hurwitz EL, Toler AW, Rossi D, Uptmor S, Sagester K, Bangash M, MacKenzie TA, Lurie JD, Coulter I. Spinal Manipulation vs Prescription Drug Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain: Beliefs, Satisfaction With Care, and Qualify of Life Among Older Medicare Beneficiaries. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 2022 Mar 26. Link
6. SMT is Effective for Headaches
"This review study demonstrates the benefits [spinal manipulation] has on decreasing headache frequency, intensity, and duration in tension-type headache and migraines. [Spinal manipulation] has shown to be beneficial, especially for patients seeking alternative non-pharmaceutical and non-invasive treatments."
Deeper Dive: Subscribers can check out this Cervical SNAG exercise that a 2022 systematic review endorsed as a beneficial adjunct for cervicogenic headaches.
Silva CE, Joseph AM, Khatib M, Knafo J, Karas M, Krupa K, Rivera B, Macia A, Madhu B, McMillan M, Burtch J. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment and the Management of Headaches: A Scoping Review. Cureus. 2022 Aug 9;14(8). Link
7. New Test is 92% Sensitive for Rotator Cuff Pathology
"Our results demonstrate that the Internal rotation and shift-test is a reliable and valid tool for assessing superior rotator cuff pathology. With good-to-excellent intra-rater and inter-rater reliability and strong sensitivity [92%] and specificity [67%], this test should be considered a valuable addition to clinicians' cadre of clinical evaluation tools."
Deeper Dive: Subscribers can review the new Internal Rotation and Shift-Test here.
Fieseler G, Laudner K, Sendler J, Cornelius J, Schulze S, Lehmann W, Hermassi S, Delank KS, Schwesig R. The internal rotation and shift-test for the detection of superior lesions of the rotator cuff: reliability and clinical performance. JSES international. 2022 Feb 18. Link
8. Neurodynamics is Effective for CTS (again)
"Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy of the upper extremity. Neural mobilizations can aid in the reduction of neural edema, neural mobility, and neural adhesion while improving nerve conduction. Splinting is only effective when combined with neurodynamics."
Deeper Dive: Review this recent blog on 7 New Skills for CTS.
Wise S, Bettleyon J. Neurodynamics Is an Effective Intervention for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. 2022 Dec 30;1(aop):1-4. Link
9. Chiropractic Rx For the Best Mattress
Existing literature does not provide a definitive evidence-based answer to “What type of mattress is best?” So, your ChiroUp team launched its own research survey to answer that question and found that individual chiropractors endorse different “best” mattresses for their patients.
Assessing the survey responses by subtracting the percent of discouraged (detractors) from the percent of recommended (promoters) generates a net endorsement score for each type of mattress with a possible range of -100 to +100. Not surprisingly, the scores are relatively similar, except for waterbeds which are strongly discouraged by chiropractors.
Deeper Dive: Check out the complete blog on 5 Chiropractic Recommendations for the Best Type of Mattress for more advice on mattress firmness, replacement, and purchases. Subscribers can download our latest Top Mattress Advice infographic to share your optimal recommendations with patients in about 10 seconds.
ChiroUp 2022 Mattress Survey to ChiroUp subscribers and Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance followers. October 2022.
10. PCPs Ignore LBP Guidelines To Rx SMT
"Low back pain (LBP) clinical practice guidelines recommend referral for patients with persistent LBP however, discordance persists between recommended care and implementation in practice. Referral pathways that align to clinical guideline recommendations for non-surgical management remain underdeveloped."
Boyle EM, Evans K, Coates S, Fary RE, Bennell K, Sterling M, Rebbeck T, Beales DJ. Patient experiences of referral practices and primary care physiotherapy for chronic nonspecific low back pain. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. 2022 Nov 5:1-7. Link
ChiroUp subscribers can access the latest chiropractic research daily in their homepage research review.
