There has been a debate as to the effectiveness of chiropractic adjustments versus prescribed muscle relaxers for acute injuries. This debate has been ongoing for decades.
Early research did focus a bias toward drug-based care, but more recent research has debunked many of the earlier claims. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology in 2020 found that initial claims of 22% low back pain relief using muscle relaxers was really only a 2% reduction in pain.
Other medical studies, including that of the American College of Emergency Physicians (2020), found that patients with acute low back pain had the same relief of pain with a placebo, when compared to a muscle relaxer. Some studies have shown the placebo to have a greater effectiveness for pain relief than muscle relaxers.
There are times when medication use should be the first model of care, but ongoing research shows chiropractic care may be nearly 50% more effective at relieving acute low back pain than muscle relaxers. I feel that we do need to take a more common sense approach to treating low back pain. Medication often has side-effects, even muscle relaxers. A nation-wide study of Medicare patients found that there was a 40% increase in fracture risk when using muscle relaxers. With an aging population, this is a big deal!
Tags: Chiropractic Adjustment, Muslce relaxers