Trial reportBMC musculoskeletal disorders2021
The effect of two weeks of spinal manipulative therapy and home stretching exercises on pain and disability in patients with persistent or recurrent neck pain; a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03576846 (The Effect of Spinal Manipulative Therapy on Heart Rate Variability and Pain, and the Predictive Value of Conditioned Pain Modulation), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Spinal Manipulative Therapy on Heart Rate Variability and Pain, and the Predictive Value of Conditioned Pain Modulation
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telerehabilitation for neck pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- The majority of clinical trials assessing mobilization and manipulation for neck pain lack a pragmatic approach: a systematic review of 174 trials.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy · 2024Pooled it
- The response to individualized treatment after a standardized treatment protocol among neck pain sufferers: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Trial
- Are changes in pain associated with changes in heart rate variability in patients treated for recurrent or persistent neck pain?BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2022Trial
- The effect of spinal manipulative therapy and home stretching exercises on heart rate variability in patients with persistent or recurrent neck pain: a randomized controlled trial.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2021Trial
- Evaluating Manual Therapy in Musculoskeletal Pain: Why Certain Trial Designs May Overestimate Effectiveness-A Scoping Review.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Biomechanical effect of cage size in single-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: a finite element analysis.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- How to Evaluate the Efficacy of Manipulations in Spine Disorders-A Comprehensive Review of New and Traditional Outcome Measures.Clinics and practice · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecurrent or persistent neck pain affects a vast number of people globally, leading to reduced quality of life and high societal costs. Clinically, it is a difficult condition to manage, and treatment effect sizes are often moderate at best. Activity and manual therapy are first-line treatment options in current guidelines. We aimed to investigate the combination of home stretching exercises and spinal manipulative therapy in a multicentre randomized controlled clinical trial, carried out in multidiscipline ary primary care clinics.
methodsThe treatment modalities utilized were spinal manipulative therapy and home stretching exercises compared to home stretching exercises alone. Both groups received 4 treatments for 2 weeks. The primary outcome was pain, where the subjective pain experience was investigated by assessing pain intensity (NRS - 11) and the quality of pain (McGill Pain Questionnaire). Neck disability and health status were secondary outcomes, measured using the Neck Disability Indexthe EQ-5D, respectively. One hundred thirty-one adult subjects were randomized to one of the two treatment groups. All subjects had experienced persistent or recurrent neck pain the previous 6 months and were blinded to the other group intervention. The clinicians provided treatment for subjects in both group and could not be blinded. The researchers collecting data were blinded to treatment allocation, as was the statistician performing data analyses. An intention-to-treat analysis was used.
resultsSixty-six subjects were randomized to the intervention group, and sixty-five to the control group. For NRS - 11, a B-coefficient of - 0,01 was seen, indication a 0,01 improvement for the intervention group in relation to the control group at each time point with a p-value of 0,305. There were no statistically significant differences between groups for any of the outcome measures.
conclusionBased on the current findings, there is no additional treatment effect from adding spinal manipulative therapy to neck stretching exercises over 2 weeks for patients with persistent or recurrent neck pain.
trial registrationThe trial was registered 03/07/2018 at ClinicalTrials.gov , registration number: NCT03576846.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.