wassabeee

Michael Power · @wassabeee

20th Oct 2010 from Twitlonger

@carmenego There is no reliable evidence that chiropractic, osteopathy, or spinal manipulation provide any useful benefit for people with sciatica. And there is reason to believe that chiropractic may aggravate sciatica.

I have a double personal interest in this issue because (i) I have sciatica, and (ii) I wrote this evidence summary:

http://www.cks.nhs.uk/sciatica_lumbar_radiculopathy/management/scenario_sciatica_lumbar_radiculopathy#-401003

The evidence was summarized last year, but our scanning for new research has not found any new evidence since then, as you can see here:
http://www.cks.nhs.uk/sciatica_lumbar_radiculopathy/management/scenario_sciatica_lumbar_radiculopathy#-398914

The abstract of this recent paper is consistent with what I have said, and tells you all you need to know about the evidence: there is no effective treatment other than surgery (when the sciatica is due to nerve root compression) --- and surgery has its limitations too:

http://www.nature.com/nrrheum/journal/v6/n3/full/nrrheum.2010.3.html

The abstract's authors are the world experts on the evidence on treatments for sciatica.

Reply · Report Post