Manual therapies for pain control: chiropractic and massage.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of chiropractic and massage therapy for the reduction of any type of pain.


METHODS
Systematic reviews of chiropractic and massage as a means of pain control were located and evaluated.


RESULTS
Six systematic reviews were found, 4 of chiropractic and 2 of massage therapy. Promising evidence emerged from some of these reviews but neither for chiropractic nor for massage was there fully convincing evidence for effectiveness in controlling musculoskeletal or other pain.


CONCLUSIONS
The notion that chiropractic or massage are effective interventions for pain control has not been demonstrated convincingly through rigorous clinical trials.
Ernst
E
E
Peninsula Medical School, and Department of Complementary Medicine, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter, 25 Victoria Park Road, Exeter EX2 4NT, UK. edzard.ernst@pms.ac.uk
D001416:Back Pain / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006261:Headache / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D026882:Manipulation, Chiropractic / Q000379:methods*; D008405:Massage / Q000379:methods*; D026201:Musculoskeletal Manipulations / Q000379:methods; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000628:therapy; D059408:Pain Management; D016896:Treatment Outcome