Cervical Spine Manipulation Affects on Balance and Proprioception

Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Neck Pain; Headache

Treatments: Other: Manual Contact; Other: Cervical Spine Manipulation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01745705

1105-3780

Details and patient eligibility

About

Cervical spine manipulation (CSM) is utilized by many health care practitioners in the management of patients with neck pain and headache. How CSM works is not understood however, most researchers agree that there is likely a combination of mechanical, neurophysiological and placebo effects. This study will test for possible neurophysiological effects by examining for changes in a person's ability to reposition their head and neck in space, and maintain their balance following CSM.

Full description

Consenting participants will have their proprioception tested through a joint repositioning error test for their cervical spine, and also have their balance tested through a Neurocom Balancemaster. Following these pre-intervention measures, they will receive in a random order, either a cervical spine manipulation (CSM) or a sham manipulation, and then have tests repeated to analyze for changes and differences between interventions.

Enrollment: 45 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 60

Exclusion criteria

• current neck pain/symptoms; neck pain symptoms within the last 6 months; confirmation or possibility of pregnancy; dizziness; vertigo, or nausea; history of cervical spine surgery; rheumatoid arthritis; osteoporosis; osteopenia; ankylosing spondylitis; cancer; or vertebral artery insufficiency.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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45 participants in 2 patient groups

Cervical Spine Manipulation

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects will lie supine on a treatment table and receive a high velocity low amplitude thrust joint manipulation to their cervical spine in rotation to each side of the neck.

Treatment:

Other: Cervical Spine Manipulation

Manual Contact

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Subjects will lie supine on a treatment table and have their suboccipital region gently cupped by the therapist for 30 seconds. No movement or force will be applied, just simple manual contact.

Treatment:

Other: Manual Contact