Chiropractic Care and Colic.

Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving infantile colic.

This is the conclusion of a study done in Denmark on the effectiveness of chiropractic care for infants with colic. The researchers found a decrease in the number of hours of crying by 67%. They compared this to only a 38% decrease in a second group that was treated with dimethicone over the same time period. An interesting note is made in the discussion of the study that there were 9 drop outs in the dimethicone group and none in the adjustment group. The authors comment on this "inspection of the data in the last infantile colic profile completed before dropout show clearly that for all where information is available, the dropout was due to a genuine worsening of symptoms and not parents' bias." The effect of the drop outs and the removal of their data likely, according to the authors, made the data on the dimethicone appear better than it would have if they had remained in the study. The authors concluded their discussion with this statement: "Spinal manipulation is normally used in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, and the results of this trial leave open 2 possible interpretations. Either spinal manipulation is effective in the treatment of the visceral disorder infantile colic or infantile colic is, in fact, a musculoskeletal disorder, and not, as normally assumed, visceral. This study does not address this issue."

References:

Wiberg JMM, Nordsteen J, Nilsson N. The Short-Term Effect of Spinal Manipulation in the Treatment of Infantile Colic: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial with a Blinded Observer J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1999 (Oct); 22 (8): 517-522