07/14/2025
One of the most common things I’ve heard from people about chiropractic care is the myth that once you start care, you must keep going forever. Unfortunately, a lot of chiropractic offices do operate this way, encouraging excessive and costly treatment programs that need to be paid for up front. I can’t express how much I hate that business model. In my office, one visit MIGHT be good enough to take care of your issues and I’m definitely referring you elsewhere if I haven’t helped you turn a corner on your pain within six visits. It might not be the most lucrative business practice, but I do feel it’s the most honest… which is why I was excited to read about a cool study from 2024 that highlights the importance of conservative, non-pharmacological care like chiropractic, and also coincides with the way I run my practice.
In this study, over 83,000 insurance claims relating to unique low back pain episodes were examined and categorized into four groups – a control group that had never received a spinal manipulation, a low dose group that had received one spinal manipulation visit, a moderate dose group that had between 2-12 spinal manipulation visits, and a high dose group that received greater than 12 visits. The goal was to look for relationships between spinal manipulation and the need for “escalated spine care,” which was defined as “imaging studies, injection procedures, emergency department visits, surgery, and opioid medication use.” The results showed that for claims of initial episodes of low back pain, the low dose therapy group (1 visit) had a 55% decrease in escalated spine care, while the moderate dose group (2-12 visits) had a 42% decrease. The high dose group showed an increase in imaging, decrease in injections and ER visits, and similar results for surgery and opioid use as compared to the control group.
Here's the specific breakdown in each group:
Low Dose Spinal Manipulation
-47% less likely to receive imaging
-70% less likely to get injections
-92% less likely to end up in an ER
-51% less likely to undergo surgery
-67% less likely to take opioids
Moderate Dose Spinal Manipulation
-27% less likely to receive imaging
-74% less likely to get injections
-79% less likely to end up in an ER
-60% less likely to undergo surgery
-63% less likely to take opioids
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38181030/
