Early Treatment for Whiplash Injuries

For many people, the term “whiplash” conjures up a fairly uncomfortable image: being rear-ended by another car and having your head suddenly snapped back and forth by the impact.

Despite innovations in automotive design, whiplash injuries have become increasingly frequent in the past 30 years. Symptoms of whiplash can include serious and lingering neck pain, back pain, headaches and dizziness; no single effective treatment has been identified to deal with this chronic, frustrating condition.

But help may be on the way. A recent study in the journal of Spine suggests that early, active treatment is most effective for managing whiplash symptoms. In the study, “active” treatment consisted of repetitive motion exercises performed at home (10 times every hour, beginning within 96 hours of injury); “standard” treatment involved home exercises performed only a few times each day, starting two weeks after injury.

Results showed that 38% of patients receiving immediate, active treatment reported “no pain” at six-month followup, compared to only 5% of patients receiving delayed standard treatment. The authors note that this type of active home treatment is an “ideal form of rehabilitation” because it expends only small resources within the health care system.

It’s time to whip whiplash! If you or someone you know is suffering from whiplash, schedule an appointment today with us at Laurel Regional Chiropractic.

Reference: Rosenfeld M, Gunnarsson R, Borenstein P. Early intervention in whiplash-associated disorders. A comparison of two treatment protocols. Spine 2000: Vol. 25, No. 14, pp1782-87.

Dr. David P. Chen
Chiropractor in Laurel, MD 20708

Chiropractic Management of Migraine Headache

A recent Norwegian systematic review of manual therapies for migraine prevention concluded that chiropractic spinal manipulation and some other conservative interventions appear to be equal to medications (propranolol & topiramate) in their ability to prevent migraines.

Although most of the published research supporting chiropractic treatment of migraine is based upon case reports, there have been other studies including a limited number of randomized clinical trials. A previous 2001 systematic review by Bronfort et. al. concluded that “SMT appears to have a better effect than massage for cervicogenic headache. It also appears that SMT has an effect comparable to commonly used first-line prophylactic prescription medications for tension-type headache and migraine headache.

Migraine occurs in about 15% of the general population. Migraine is usually managed by medication, but some patients do not tolerate migraine medication due to side effects or prefer to avoid medication for other reasons. Non-pharmacological management is an alternative treatment option. The Randomized Clinical Trials (RCTs) suggest that massage therapy, physiotherapy, relaxation and chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy might be equally effective as propranolol and topiramate in the prophylactic management of migraine. However, due to the methodological shortcomings of the evaluated RCTs, future, well-conducted RCTs on manual therapies for migraine will be required.

Source: http://www.chiroaccess.com/Articles/Chiropractic-Management-of-Migraine-Headache.aspx?id=0000243

Dr. David P. Chen
Chiropractor in Laurel, MD 20708