Letter: Back pain

Back pain

Sir: Your report on a small study published in the New England Journal of Medicine ("Back experts 'only of marginal benefit' ", 8 October) has put unnecessary doubts in the minds of readers.

The patients selected for the study excluded severe cases and those with sciatica - so limiting it to those who were likely to get better quickly anyway. The treatment period was strictly limited to only one month, and the techniques employed were also strictly limited - so that normal holistic chiropractic care and management procedures could not be employed.

Chiropractic is a safe and effective treatment for low back pain, as previous well-researched studies both in the UK and abroad have shown. This study can cast no doubt on that fact.

PETER DIXON

President

British Chiropractic Association

Reading, Berkshire