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  Discussion on Research Summary: Effects of chiropractic on spinal pain thresholds
Author Message
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - 8:16 am:

Here is a piece of research that has been a long time coming. It is very informative on potential mechanisms of how chiropractic may effect horses with back pain. As many who read these pages know, I have long railed against chiropractic for its rather liberal use of medical terminology with both diagnostic and therapeutic terms which are at best unsupported by any scientific work and at worse highly improbable. In spite of the gibberish spoken, many horse owners have found chiropractic beneficial to their horses.

In this research project measurements of how sensitive a healthy horses back to an adverse stimulus are made. Then the horses are treated in one of three ways: phenylbutazone, message, and mechanically assisted chiropractic adjustments consisting of thrusts make over the dorsal spinous processes on the lower back and the tuber sacrale. Then the horses sensitivity to the same adverse stimulus are made again and compared with pretreatment levels. At 7 days post treatment start all 3 treatments increased the amount of pressure it took to create an avoidance response but chiropractic was the most successful at decreasing the response to adverse stimulus with massage next, and bute least effective. It remains uncertain what is the nature of this change, how this relates to specific diseases of the back, what the long term effects and results of this treatment might be. But this is a great first step towards investigating the treatment modality chiropractic.
DrO

Equine Vet J. 2008 Jan;40(1):14-20.
The effects of chiropractic, massage and phenylbutazone on spinal mechanical nociceptive thresholds in horses without clinical signs.

Sullivan KA, Hill AE, Haussler KK.

Valley Central High School, Montgomery, New York 12549.

REASON FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Common methods used to treat back problems in horses need to be assessed objectively. OBJECTIVES: To measure spinal mechanical nociceptive thresholds (MNTs) and evaluate the effects of chiropractic, massage and phenylbutazone, compared with active and inactive control groups. METHODS: Baseline MNTs at 7 sites within the thoracolumbar and sacral regions were measured in 38 healthy mature horses exhibiting no clinical signs of lumbar pain. Horses were assigned to one of 3 treatment groups: instrument-assisted chiropractic treatment, therapeutic massage and phenylbutazone; or 2 control groups: ridden exercise (active control) or routine paddock turnout with no ridden exercise (inactive control). MNT measurements were repeated at 1, 3 and 7 days post treatment. The percentage change from baseline MNT values was calculated within groups. RESULTS: On Day 7, the median MNT had increased by 27, 12 and 8% in the chiropractic, massage and phenylbutazone groups, respectively. MNT changes of <1% were seen within the active and inactive control groups. CONCLUSIONS: Chiropractic treatment and massage therapy increased spinal MNTs within horses not exhibiting signs of lumbar pain. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE: Pressure algometry provides an objective tool to evaluate the effects of commonly used, but currently unproven treatment modalities on spinal MNTs. Future studies need to evaluate combined treatment effects and longer-term MNT changes in horses with documented back pain.
Member:
ajudson1

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - 9:02 am:

I love hearing that an alternative method of health care is shown to work! I hate useing something to mask the pain/problem that is not helping the body heal itself.

I have long considered using chiropractic for at least one of my horses, but, from my own experience with them, I know not everyone does things the same, and a body don't always get results.

Thanks for the summary.

Now...about determining if a vet is indeed a qualified chiropractor...
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - 11:05 am:

Anjie, you misread the summary. What it found was that healthy horses exposed to this procedure were less reactive to a adverse stimulus. This is a long way from saying it works, or even what "it works" means. As the summary concludes:
Pressure algometry provides an objective tool to evaluate the effects of commonly used, but currently unproven treatment modalities on spinal MNTs. Future studies need to evaluate combined treatment effects and longer-term MNT changes in horses with documented back pain.
DrO
Member:
erika

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - 3:10 pm:

When I read the objective of the study, thought, "What does this have to do with existing pain and relief?".

Now I see that it has nothing to do with it. They are simply saying that it is harder to hurt (create a pain response, not injury) the back after treatment. It doesn't address situations that one would call upon a chiro for...is that correct?

I suppose its a start, though.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - 6:48 pm:

Erika,
One of the problems with this type research is standardization and significance. One of the questions they had to answer to determine this was do these techniques give repeatable results that can then be used for comparison. Comparisons not only between individuals but the same individual over elapsed time.

When you read the whole paper they looked for horses with chronic back pain but were unable to find enough similar cases to use for comparison. As a result they decided to use healthy horses so that they could make conclusions about the significance between comparisons. This might greatly improve the confidence of conclusions when used on smaller groups of horses with problems.
DrO
Member:
erika

Posted on Thursday, Jan 24, 2008 - 6:00 pm:

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that it was useless research, on the contrary! I find it fascinating that they got the response that they did.

I look forward to future research on horses with back pain. Seems like it is a very necessary task since chiropractic is becoming the norm for a lot of horse owners.

Can't wait to see what does/doesn't work.
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