Over the years, Dr. Komeshak has helped many people in O'Fallon, IL recover from persistent neck pain. This isn't unexpected, as research demonstrates that chiropractic care results in significant results for 94% of neck pain sufferers. But how does chiropractic measure up to other conservative therapies in the management of neck pain?
To answer this question, it's useful to look back at an important study from 2003 printed in the British Medical Journal. The paper compared various conventional therapies and concluded that manual therapy was the most cost-effective option for neck pain.
Researchers from the Netherlands were interested by evaluating not only the costs associated with manual therapy but exactly how efficiently manual therapy provided relief compared to other treatments. They randomly assigned 183 patients who were suffering from acute neck pain to receive treatment from manual therapists (MT), physiotherapists (PT), or general practitioners (GP).
The patients who received manual therapy had the speediest improvement rate. After 7 weeks of care, 68% of the MT group had recovered, as opposed to 51% of the PT group and 36% of the GP group. These differences in improvement rates were still statistically significant after 26 weeks but not after 52 weeks.
To calculate costs of treatments, the authors considered direct costs including visits to the healthcare provider and the prices of prescription drugs, alongside indirect costs such as work missed 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. Typically, 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 nine patients in the MT group documented missed work because of neck pain, compared to twelve in the PT group and 15 in the GP group.
The reduced cost likely stemmed from the fact that MT patients were consuming considerably less prescription drugs and required fewer treatment interventions resulting from quicker recovery rates. The researchers concluded that manual therapy, particularly spinal mobilization, is less costly and more effective at relieving neck pain than physical therapy or care from a general practitioner.
Dr. Komeshak has worked with many people who have struggled with neck pain. If you live in O'Fallon, IL and would like to stop experiencing chronic neck pain, give our office a call at (618) 624-4242 for a consultation.