However, for those suffering from chronic low back pain the best treatment may be massage, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study found patients receiving massage were twice as likely as those receiving standard care to report significant improvements in both their pain and function. After 10 weeks, approximately two thirds of those receiving massage improved substantially, versus only one third of those receiving standard care.
There were also lifestyle benefits for massage recipients in the study including less use of pain medications and a decrease in the number of days of limited activity due to low back pain.
There were over 400 patients suffering from chronic low back pain in the study. They were assigned to one of three groups: those receiving standard care, those receiving relaxation massage that is intended to induce general relaxation and those receiving structural massage that is intended to identify and ease contributors to back pain. Treatment lasted 10 weeks. More than 33 percent of the patients in the massage groups reported that their back pain was much better or completely gone compared with only four percent in the usual care group.
Those results were still seen after 26 weeks, which may have implications for low back pain patients staying healthy.