The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $14 million grant to the University of Minnesota and University of Washington to study the benefits of spinal manipulation for back pain vs. standard medical care (including prescription medication).
Participating researchers hail from the University of Minnesota (whose Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing received the bulk of the NIH award for the clinical trial, which will be conducted at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pittsburgh), the University of Washington (which received the remaining funds for data management / statistical support), Oregon Health and Sciences University, Duke University, and the University of North Texas.
The "Spinal Manipulation and Patient Self-Management for Preventing Acute to Chronic Back Pain Trial" will compare spinal manipulative therapy and supported self-management vs. usual medical care (including prescription medications). Supported self-care includes behavioral and copies strategies, mind-body approaches, lifestyle advice, and pain education – all designed to address the biopsychosocial aspects of back pain. Nearly 1,200 patients will be enrolled in the study beginning next spring.
Gert Brontfort, DC, PhD, a professor in the Bakken Center's Integrative Health and Wellbeing Research Program, will serve as lead investigator on the study. Other doctors of chiropractic involved in the study include the University of Pittsburgh's Michael Schneider, DC, PhD (co-principal investigator for the Clinical Coordinating Center, which will conduct the clinical trial) and Joel Stevens, DC, PhD; Roni Evans, DC, PhD (who directs the Integrative Health and Wellbeing Research Program at the U. of Minnesota Bakken Center), and Brent Leininger, DC, MS, also from the University of Minnesota.
The Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota is partially funded by the NCMIC Foundation. According to Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAAN, a professor in the school of Nursing at the U. of Minnesota and director of the Bakken Center, "The support of NCMIC Foundation has been pivotal to helping the Center establish a world-class research program in chiropractic and integrative health from the influential platform of a prestigious land-grant university. It has also helped us to advance future research affiliations."
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