Other Neck-Pain Treatments Beat Drugs

Spinal manipulation and home exercise may relieve neck pain better than medicines, new research suggests. The study included 272 people. They had felt neck pain for 2 to 12 weeks before the study began. They were randomly divided into 3 groups. One group received spinal manipulation treatments. The second group took over-the-counter pain medicines, or prescription drugs if needed. The third group was trained to do home exercises for the neck. The study lasted 12 weeks. By the end, 82% of the spinal manipulation group reported that their pain was reduced by at least half. This compares with 69% of those on medicines and 77% of those who did home exercises. At least 30% of the spinal manipulation and exercise groups said all of their pain was gone. About 13% of the medicine group reported no pain.