If you go to see a chiropractor for back pain treatment in Brighton one of the important questions you want answered is “Will a chiropractor help me get better?” This is an important question for chiropractors too. If our treatment is not going to be effective we want to refer you quickly to another treatment.
This is a hot topic in the research at the moment. Back treatment studies are popping up all over the world trying to answer the question “who is likely to get better when they see a chiropractor for back pain?”
It is a hard question to answer because there are lots of different causes of back pain, people have different lifestyles, respond to care differently and some people don’t do their exercises!
So what are the results from these studies going back 25 years. Back sufferers who do worse tend to have more severe pain for a longer period. So far no surprises. People who have more than 30 days pain in the last year are more likely to carry on having pain. Being in work seems to help and curiously so does moderate alcohol consumption in more longstanding back pain.
Perhaps the most interesting findings are that your expectation of whether you will get better affects whether you will get better. If your clinician expects you to get better you are more likely to do well too. So being optimistic and being given a good prognosis help you get rid of back pain quickly.
Also if your back pain improves well in the first few treatment visits with a chiropractor then that means you are likely to have a better outcome. In fact if you have a recent bout of back pain between 60% and 80% of people are significantly better after 4 visits. These results are broadly similar for other conditions like neck pain, disc problems and whiplash.
28% of people will see a GP for back pain. And 10% of people now seek care from practitioners like chiropractors for back pain. In some areas chiropractic is available on the NHS but, sadly, not in Brighton.
Oh and one last thing. People did better if they felt that they got enough time with the chiropractor. So if you feel you would like more time at your next appointment just mention it when you book and we will happily give you a longer appointment at no extra fee.
If you haven’t been in before but would like to know if our physio’s or chiropractors in Brighton can help you then give us a call for free check. We’d love to see you.
References
Proceedings of College of Chiropractors Annual Conference, RCOG, London, Feb 1st 2012