News posted on February 08, 2009 06:29
A study published in the British Medical Journal
reported on a study of one hundred eighty-three patients
with neck pain who were divided into three groups. One
group received manual therapy such as the type of care
administered by Chiropractors. One group received
physiotherapy (mainly exercise) and the third group
received general practitioner care: medication, education
and counseling. Costs for each method of treatment were
also evaluated, along with costs such as lost wages, home
care, drugs, travel costs, etc. Patients kept diaries to track
their pain, costs and recoveries.
At the end of seven weeks of treatment, manual therapy
was the winner; 68% of the manual therapy group
demonstrated recovery after seven weeks, compared to
51% of the physiotherapy group and 36% in the general
practitioner group.
At the six-month mark, manual therapy proved to be
much less expensive than the other two forms of
treatment. The mean cost for manual therapy was reported
as $402 per patient. For physiotherapy, reported cost was
$1,167 and the general practitioner group had the highest
cost of all at $1,241.
SOURCE: http://www.chiropracticresearchreview.com/crr/article.php?id=80