This month I’d like to draw attention to a recent study from the Journal of Spine that compared the treatment of 2 groups of military personal between the ages of 18-35 with low back pain*. This study concluded that patients treated with Chiropractic care in conjugation with Medical care demonstrated a significant decrease in pain and improved physical function when compared to the use of Medical care alone. Within Australia, serving military personal are unable to access Chiropractic services on base and therefore if a patient wants to see a Chiropractor they have to do so on their own accord and pay for the care off base. Some patients over the years have been worried that they are doing the wrong thing by seeking care outside the base and are concerned that if it is found out that they have sought care elsewhere that this would be frowned upon. This has always concerned me, as a health practitioner the goal is always to return the patient to their optimal function as quickly as possible whilst using any means available. To discourage the use of a proven form of treatment that is effective in treating a common issue in young serving men and women is counterproductive. The CAA NT would like to encourage more freedom of choice for people serving in the armed forces and to encourage more cooperation and co-management of spinal pain cases between medical military personal and local CAA Chiropractors.
*Adding Chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: The results of a pragmatic randomised comparative effectiveness study. SPINE (Phila Pa 1976) 2012 Oct 10 (E-version ahead of print)
