Chiropractic and Headaches         

Personally, I love treating individuals with headaches and think that Chiropractic care does a better job than any other treatment available. 

In fact, the following report makes reference to a study at the prestigious Duke University School of Medicine that was to evaluate the effectiveness of Chiropractic care on the treatment of individuals with headaches.  Mysteriously, the study was halted.  Rumors abounded that the results were very positive in support of Chiropractic.

Hmm....

Anyway, here’s what was released:

Evidence reports released by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER) show the effectiveness of chiropractic care for sufferers of Headaches

The reports, released February of 2001, was the continuation of a release of a study done at Duke University several years earlier.  In the study many different types of physical and  behavioral treatments were used for patients with headaches.  Chiropractic care was specifically compared to amitriptyline, a common medication used for headaches. 

In this study the staff at the Duke Center screened articles from the literature, created evidence tables, and analyzed the quality and magnitude of results from these studies. They then drafted an evidence report with peer review from a panel of 25 reviewers, including researchers and clinicians in chiropractic.

The results showed that chiropractic was highly effective for patients with tension headaches. When compared with the drug amitriptyline, chiropractic and the drug had similar short term effects during the episode.  However, the drug carried with it an adverse reaction rate in 82% of the patients.  

The most profound effects were seen after the care was discontinued in the study.  In these instances the patients who were on drug therapy essentially returned to the same state as before.  However, the patients who were under chiropractic care continued to show sustained reduction in headache frequency and severity even after the chiropractic care was discontinued.  The implications are that chiropractic is not actually a therapy or treatment, but rather gets to the cause allowing the body to effect a correction that lasts beyond actual care.