BMJ  2004;329:1402-1403 (11 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.1402-b

Letter

Physiotherapy compared with advice for low back pain

... but at no point compared physiotherapy with chiropractic

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR—The study by Frost et al was not a comparison between chiropractic and physiotherapy intervention (that has been done before), but rather a comparison between two different physiotherapy approaches to managing patients with chronic low back pain.¹

The study was conducted well and it is therefore a shame that a combination of sloppy editorial input and sensational articles in the press have put physiotherapists in a vulnerable position.

Effective communication and dissemination of information is an essential core skill of physiotherapy. As other contributors have commented, this study highlights the potential benefits of encouraging patients to self manage their back pain.^{2 3}

Short term pain relief, whether provided by a physiotherapist or chiropractor, has its merits, but to say that physiotherapy is inferior to chiropractic on the basis of this study is nonsense.

Denbigh Community Hospital, Denbigh LL16 3ES bartleys@mac.com

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Competing interests: None declared.

1. Frost H, Lamb SE, Doll HA, Taffe Carver P, Stewart-Brown S. Randomised controlled trial of physiotherapy compared with advice for low back pain. BMJ 2004;329: 708. (25 September.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Electronic responses. Back pain and physiotherapy. bmj.com 2004. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/329/7468/694 (accessed 2 Dec 2004).
3. Electronic responses. Randomised controlled trial of physiotherapy compared with advice for low back pain. bmj.com 2004. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/329/7468/708 (accessed 2 Dec 2004).

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Relevant Article

Randomised controlled trial of physiotherapy compared with advice for low back pain

Helen Frost, Sarah E Lamb, Helen A Doll, Patricia Taffe Carver, and Sarah Stewart-Brown
BMJ 2004 329: 708. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]