Manual therapy is cost effective for treating neck pain

Manual therapy (spinal mobilisation) is more effective and less costly than physiotherapy or care by a general practitioner for treating neck pain. Korthals-de Bos and colleagues (p 911) conducted an economic evaluation comparing the cost effectiveness of three different treatments for patients with neck pain. After 26 weeks, patients having manual therapy had higher recovery rates than those having physiotherapy or being cared for by a general practitioner, but these rates were similar after 52 weeks. Total costs in the manual therapy group were around a third of the costs in the other two groups.

(Credit: STOCKBYTE/REX)

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Relevant Article

Cost effectiveness of physiotherapy, manual therapy, and general practitioner care for neck pain: economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial • Commentary: Bootstrapping simplifies appreciation of statistical inferences

Ingeborg B C Korthals-de Bos, Jan L Hoving, Maurits W van Tulder, Maureen P M H Rutten-van Mölken, Herman J Adèr, Henrica C W de Vet, Bart W Koes, Hindrik Vondeling, Lex M Bouter, and Marcus Müllner
BMJ 2003 326: 911. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]