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Updated: Aug 31, 2025
Assessment of the Efficacy of An Osteopathic Treatment in Infants with Biomechanical Impairments to Suckling
Published on: February 5, 2019
Effectiveness of osteopathic interventions in patients with non-specific neck pain: A systematic review and
Fulvio Dal Farra1, Francesca Buffone2, Roberta Giulia Risio3
1Department of Research, SOMA - Istituto Osteopatia Milano, Milan, Italy; Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
Objective:
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate whether osteopathic manipulative interventions can reduce pain levels and enhance the functional status in patients with non-specific neck pain (NS-NP).
Methods:
A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted following the 2020 PRISMA statement. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched in five databases, assessed through a standardized form, and evaluated using the "13 items Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) tool". Effect sizes (ES) were calculated post-treatment, and the quality of evidence was assessed through GRADE criteria.
Results:
Five articles were included in the review, and none of these was completely judged at low RoB. Four of these were included in the meta-analysis. Osteopathic interventions compared to no intervention/sham treatment showed statistically significant results for pain levels (ES = -1.57 [-2.50, -0.65]; P = 0.0008) and functional status (ES = -1.71 [-3.12, -0.31]; P = 0.02). The quality of evidence was "very low" for all the assessed outcomes. Other results were presented in a qualitative synthesis.
Conclusions:
Osteopathic interventions could be effective for pain levels and functional status improvements in adults with NS-NP. However, these findings are affected by a very low quality of evidence. Therefore, further high-quality RCTs are necessary to improve the quality of evidence and generalize the results.
