New Study Shows Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain by a Physical Therapist Using Manipulation and Exercise Is Beneficial
American Academy of OMPT
Estimates are that low back pain affects 80% of the population at some point in their life. According to the authors of a study published in a 2003 summer edition of the medical journal Spine states, "Chronic low back pain is the most common complaint of the working-age population." In the study, people with chronic low back pain treated by physical therapists using manual therapy spinal manipulation techniques and exercise were compared with people seen by a physician who gave them educational material alone. The research, done in Finland at the Rehabilitation Unit of the Orthopaedic Hospital Orton and the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere, takes into account that in Europe, manual therapy is recognized as a specialty area of physical therapy.
