The effect of intermittent, mechanical cervical traction in the chiropractic management of mechanical neck pain

Abstract

Mechanical neck pain is an extremely common condition. At any specific time, as many as 12% of the adult female population and 9% of the adult male population experience pain in the neck, with or without associated arm pain, and 35% of people can recall an episode of previous neck pain (Bland 1994:3). However, to date little research has been conducted to investigate which treatment protocolIs may be the most effective in the management of mechanical neck pain syndromes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the combination of chiropractic manipulative therapy and intermittent, mechanical cervical traction would be more effective in the treatment of mechanical neck pain than chiropractic manipulative therapy alone. It was hypothesized that chiropractic cervical manipulative therapy and the combination of chiropractic cervical manipulative therapy and intermittent, mechanical cervical traction would both be effective in the treatment of mechanical neck pain. Moreover, with reference to objective and subjective clinical findings, it was hypothesized that the combination of chiropractic cervical manipulative therapy and intermittent, mechanical cervical traction would be more effective in the treatment of mechanical neck pain than chiropracic manipulative therapy alone.