Low back pain therapy effective

More than 632 million people worldwide suffer from low back pain, and it is a leading cause of disability. According to the Institute of Medicine, one-third of all Americans suffer from chronic pain, which exceeds the number of people who are affected by heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. In the United States alone, approximately 100 million adults are affected by chronic pain, and the economic costs of medical care and lost productivity total more than $550 billion annually.

Chronic low back pain is an important component of these costs. A study published in the Annals of Family Medicine offers hope in the form of a hands-on treatment that provides moderate to substantial improvement in pain, and that reduces the use of prescription medication.

This study used osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) and ultrasound therapy to treat chronic low back pain in 455 adults. Patients in the study who received ultrasound therapy did not see any improvement, but the patients who received OMT did see significant improvement in pain (between 30 to 50% reduction), used less prescription medication and were more satisfied with their care over the 12 weeks of the study than those patients who did not receive OMT.

Patients received six treatments during the course of the study. OMT incoporates soe techniques used in chiropractic care or physical therapy, but OMT is more of a combination of techniques.