Chronic asthma and chiropractic spinal manipulation: a randomized clinical trial

Area of Science:

• Integrative medicine
• Respiratory medicine
• Clinical trials

Background:

• Chronic asthma management often involves pharmaceutical therapies.
• Complementary therapies like chiropractic treatment are explored for asthma symptom relief.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of chiropractic treatment as an adjunct to pharmaceutical maintenance therapy for chronic asthma.
• To assess chiropractic's impact on lung function, bronchodilator use, asthma severity, and bronchial reactivity.

Main Methods:

• A randomized, patient- and observer-blinded, cross-over trial involving 31 adult chronic asthma patients.
• Participants received active or sham chiropractic spinal manipulative treatment twice weekly for 4 weeks, followed by a cross-over period.
• Outcome measures included lung function (FEV1, FVC), bronchodilator use, patient-rated severity, and non-specific bronchial reactivity (n-BR).

Main Results:

• No statistically significant or clinically important differences were observed between active and sham chiropractic interventions for primary or secondary outcomes.
• Objective lung function (FEV1, FVC) did not change significantly.
• A significant improvement in non-specific bronchial hyperreactivity (n-BR) by 36% (P=0.01) and a decrease in patient-rated asthma severity by 34% (P=0.0002) were noted from baseline.

Conclusions:

• Chiropractic spinal manipulative treatment, when added to standard pharmaceutical care, did not demonstrate significant efficacy over sham treatment for chronic asthma.
• Despite no objective lung function improvement, patients experienced subjective benefits in asthma severity and bronchial reactivity.