Study asks: what’s best for beating back pain?

University of Manchester researchers are recruiting low back pain sufferers to investigate the therapeutic effects of a well-known and much-used technique; spinal manipulation.

Low back pain is a common problem and spinal manipulation has been used to treat it successfully for 80 years. It involves putting the back into a specific position and applying a short quick thrusting movement, which causes the joint to ‘pop’.Now Louise Potter and her team at the Centre for Rehabilitation Science are investigating the actual effect spinal manipulation has on the muscles around the spine.They are recruiting 60 people aged 20 to 55, who are currently suffering low back pain, to take part in painless tests at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (WTCRF) on Grafton Street in Manchester.The team will measure the electrical activity in the superficial spinal muscles during a manipulation to the lumbar spine. The study will also look at the effect of spinal manipulation on the pain sensation in the muscles close to the spine, by measuring the individual’s threshold to pain in these muscles and by questioning the subject on their feelings of pain and altered function.The experiment will compare the results of those who, during four 45-minute visits to the WTCRF, receive a spinal manipulation, and those who receive a ‘sham’ manipulation. It is hoped that identifying a difference in the two groups will help to explain how spinal manipulation exerts its therapeutic effects.Ms Potter said: “Low back pain is a very common problem, which has many different methods of treatment”. Spinal manipulation has been shown to be effective for the treatment of low back pain, but it is still not clear what the actual effects of these treatments are. “Gaining a better understanding of the physiological effects of spinal manipulation will allow practitioners to use techniques appropriate to an individual.”The experiment involves receiving a spinal manipulation to the lumbar spine. It is not a painful procedure and if the participant does feel any discomfort the experiment can be stopped immediately.”(Source: University of Manchester: July 2006).