Seeking Wholeness

The results of the six-year study of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and its Associated Disorders has recently been published online in the peer-reviewed journal Spine.

Below you will see captions from the study findings document.

The Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders is composed of a group of international researchers and scientist-clinicians who have spent the past seven years undertaking a comprehensive and structured review of the current research on neck pain.  The Scientific Secretariat of the Task Force is composed of 13 members and has been supported by an international Advisory Committee of 17 members.  The Task Force and Advisory Committee members represent 14 disciplines ranging from neurology and rheumatology to epidemiology, chiropractic and physical therapy from across nine countries.

In conducting its review of the available published research on neck pain, the Neck Pain Task Force considered almost 32,000 research citations and performed critical appraisals of the more than 1,000 research studies that were relevant to its mandate.  The Task Force report synthesizes the best available evidence on the onset, course and prognosis, assessment and management of neck pain, and includes the results of several original research studies

Some of the Findings:

• Neck pain is a widespread experience
• Once an episode of neck pain happens, the majority will find it is a persistent or recurrent condition.
• There is usually no single cause of neck pain
• Neck pain including WAD should be classified into a common system and the Neck Pain Task Force recommends 4 Grades:
  • Grade 1: neck pain with little or no interference with daily activities.
  • Grade 2: neck pain that limits daily activities.
  • Grade 3:  neck pain accompanied by radiculopathy (“pinched nerve” – pain weakness and/or numbness in the arm).
  • Grade 4:  neck pain with serious pathology, such as tumor, fracture, infection, systemic disease; it was beyond the mandate of the task force to study Grade 4 neck pain.
• Most neck pain is Grade 1 or 2: there are a variety of treatments worth considering: Education, Exercise, Mobilization, Manipulation, Acupuncture, Analgesics, Massage, Low level laser therapy
• Cervical manipulation is a reasonable option for people with Grade 1 or 2 neck pain
• The risk of vertebrobasilar (VBA) stroke associated with a visit to a chiropractor’s office appears to be no different  from the risk of stroke following a visit to an MD’s office:
  • It is likely that patients in the early stages of VBA stroke are presenting to both chiropractors and family doctors because of neck pain and headache due to pre-existing vertebral artery dissection which is a risk factor for VBA stroke.
  • VBA dissection and stroke is extremely rare and there is no practical way to screen neck pain and headache patients for this problem.

You could contact me to request the summary of findings document “NPTFKeyFindings.doc” or you could download the document from the Canadian Chiropractic Association website

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