Below is a summary of the key recommendations regarding the use of manual therapy as a treatment for LBP:
- Currently, there is no convincing evidence that spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) has superior clinically important benefits to sham SMT for the treatment of CLBP [1].
- Manual therapy should be used in conjunction with exercise therapy, pain education and where indicated, pyschological therapy [2, 3].
- The type of manual therapy should be based on the clinician’s experience, patient’s preferences and best available evidence.
References
- Rubinstein SM, de Zoete A, van Middelkoop M, et al. Benefits and harms of spinal manipulative therapy for the treatment of chronic low back pain: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ 2019;364:l689
- Bernstein, I. A., Malik, Q., Carville, S., & Ward, S. (2017). Low back pain and sciatica: summary of NICE guidance. BMJ, 356, i6748
- Oliveira, C. B., Maher, C. G., Pinto, R. Z., Traeger, A. C., Lin, C.-W. C., Chenot, J.-F., . . . Koes, B. W. (2018). Clinical practice guidelines for the management of non-specific low back pain in primary care: an updated overview. European Spine Journal. doi:10.1007/s00586-018-5673-2