THE BACK PAGE RESEARCH REVIEW Prevalence of manual therapy treatment for headaches REVIEWED BY SHAWN THISTLE STUDY TITLE: A Critical Review of Manual Therapy Use for Headache Disorders: Prevalence, Profiles, Motivations, Communication and Self-Reported Effectiveness AUTHORS: Moore CS, Sibbritt DW & Adams J, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Australia PUBLICATION INFORMATION: BMC Neurology 2017; 17: 61. DOI 10.1186/s12883-017-0835-0 M population, and from 10.1to 56.4 per cent (average 33.9 per cent) within the headache-pain clinic population. • Massage/acupressure use in those reporting headache within head-ache-pain clinic populations ranged from 12 to 54 per cent (average 32.5 per cent). • Osteopathy use in those in the general population suffering from migraine was approximately one per cent. Uti-lization was 2.7 per cent within a headache-pain clinic population. Migraines occupied approximately 1.7 per cent of an osteopathy patient population. • For headache sufferers, the preva-lence of osteopathy use was nine per cent within a headache-pain clinic population. Headaches occupied 2.7 to 10 per cent of the osteopathy pa-tient populations. This was the first study to critically review the prevalence and key factors associated with use of MT for headache within the peer-reviewed literature. The review demonstrated that MT use was higher within medical headache-pain clinic populations in comparison to the general population. Overall, the use of MT for headaches and migraines ap-pears to be substantial, and is likely the most common physical modality used for treatment in many countries. Still, the needs of those suffering from head-aches can be complex, and may require a multidisciplinary approach to care. Given its relatively high utilization and efficacy, clinicians should remain cogni-zant of, and open to discussing MT as a possible adjunct treatment. www.canadianchiropractor.ca igraine and tension head-aches are common and can co-occur for some patients. The authors of this review sought to critically review the prevalence of man-ual therapy (MT) use for the treatment of chronic recurrent headaches, and review the patient-related factors asso-ciated with the use of MT. Key findings from the 35 included studies were grouped and analyzed utilizing a critical review approach, which was adapted from previous re-search. Prevalence findings were re-ported within one of two possible cate-gories: either as migraine for papers reporting on the populations predomi-nantly or entirely made up of migraine patients (10 studies), or as headache for studies where the included population was predominantly comprised of other headache types. Three studies reported findings on both categories. • The prevalence of chiropractic use for those in the general population re-porting headaches ranged from 4 to 28 per cent (average 12.9 per cent). Utilization within the headache-pain clinic population ranged from 12 to 22 per cent (average 18.6 per cent). • Interestingly, headache prevalence ranged from 1.9 to 45.5 per cent (av-erage 9.8 per cent) in chiropractic populations. • The prevalence of physiotherapy use for those in the general population suffering from migraine ranged from 9 to 57 per cent (average 24.7 per cent). Utilization within head-ache-pain clinic populations ranged from 4.9 to 18.7 per cent (average 11.8 per cent). • The prevalence of physiotherapy use in the general population with head-aches ranged from 12.2 to 52 per cent (average 32.1 per cent). MT utiliza-tion prevalence ranged from 27.8 to 35 per cent within headache-pain clinic populations. Osteopathy Physiotherapy Application, conclusions Chiropractic • The prevalence of chiropractic use for those in the general population with migraine ranged from 1 to 36.2 per cent (average 14.4 per cent), and from 8.9 to 27.1 per cent (average 18 per cent) in headache patient popula-tions. Massage therapy • Massage use for those with migraine ranged from 2 to 29.7 per cent (aver-age 15.6 per cent) within the general DR. SHAWN THISTLE is the founder and CEO of RRS Education, providing weekly research reviews, online courses and seminars to help busy clinicians integrate current research evidence rationally into practice. For more information, visit: www.rrseducation.com. Shawn can be reached by email at [email protected] 26 Canadian Chiropractor July 2017
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