ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2025
The Impact of Chiropractic Care on Opioid Prescriptions in Veterans Health Administration Patients Receiving Low Back Pain Care.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Age differences in demographic and clinical characteristics among veterans with chronic low back pain: a cross-sectional study of baseline findings from the Veteran Response to Dosage in Chiropractic Therapy (VERDICT) trial.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Trial
- Age differences in demographic and clinical characteristics among veterans with chronic low back pain: a cross-sectional study of baseline findings from the Veteran Response to Dosage in Chiropractic Therapy (VERDICT) trial.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Trial
- Whole health and chiropractic: a commentary on historical roots, contemporary relevance, and future directions.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2026Article
- A survey of student loan burden among United States Chiropractors: Insights on debt, relief, and educational value.PloS one · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundKey nonpharmacologic therapies, including those routinely provided by chiropractors, are recommended first-line treatments for low back pain (LBP). Little is known on whether such care provided in the Veterans Health Administration (VA) has a downstream effect on the use of other healthcare services, including opioid prescriptions.
objectiveTo evaluate the impact of chiropractic care on receipt of opioid prescriptions within 365 days of an incident primary care provider (PCP) visit for LBP among opioid-naïve VA patients.
designCross-sectional analysis with longitudinal follow-up.
participantsPatients had an LBP visit with a VA PCP between 10/1/2015 and 9/30/2020, without any VA LBP visit in the preceding 18 months, and then 2 subsequent VA LBP visits in the following 12 months. MAIN MEASURES: VA electronic health record data including outpatient visits, prescriptions, and comorbid diagnoses. KEY
resultsA total of 128,377 patients met study criteria. The hazard ratio for opioid prescription in a propensity-matched sample was 0.77 (95% CI 0.71-0.83), indicating a significantly lower risk for receipt of an opioid prescription among chiropractic care users in the 365-day follow-up adjusting for potential confounders. The cumulative incidence of opioid prescriptions was 13.0% for chiropractic care users and 16.8% for non-users and the number needed to treat was 27.
conclusionsThe results of this study show that nonpharmacologic chiropractic care can be an important component of opioid sparing strategies for VHA patients with LBP.
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