Massage Research

People who have acute lower-back pain should undertake self-care and massage and spinal manipulation, according to a recommendation from a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine October 2007.

The study reccomends that for patients who do not improve with self-care options, clinicians (Doctors) should consider the addition of nonpharmacologic therapy with proven benefits—for acute low back pain, spinal manipulation; for chronic or subacute low back pain, intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation, exercise therapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, spinal manipulation, yoga, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or progressive relaxation.

The study was co-authored by the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society. The Annals of Internal Medicine examined and gathered data from Medline studies, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Embase to formulate its lower-back pain guidelines. For full report on the guidelines see: http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/147/7/478