Does chiropractic treatment reduce headaches in children aged 7 to 14 years?

Does chiropractic treatment reduce headaches in children aged 7 to 14 years?

The immediate answer is yes. This study concluded that chiropractic treatment resulted in a significant reduction in the number of days with headache in children aged 7 - 14 years but did not lower the intensity of the headache when it occurred.

199 children with recurrent headaches participated in the study, which compared chiropractic treatment with sham treatment to gain more knowledge about how effective chiropractic treatment is as a treatment for recurrent headaches in children. The participating children were divided into 2 groups that were treated over a period of 4 months. One group was treated with chiropractic treatment while the other group was treated with sham treatment.

Based on the treating chiropractors 34 years of experience and the and the wide age span in the participating children, it was estimated that an average of 8 treatments would be expected and an average of 8 was almost reached in the control group whereas the treatment group ended receiving a little more.

The study took place in two clinics in the Northern part of Denmark: a chiropractic clinic and a pediatric clinic. In both clinics, screenings and treatments were performed by a chiropractor with 34 years of experience in private practice.

The study is the first large scale randomized clinical trial of the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment of recurrent headaches in children and adolescents. Chiropractic treatment should be included in the treatment strategy for children and adolescents with recurrent headaches, and it is of low cost with very few side effects.

Susanne Lynge, Kristina Boe Dissing, Werner Vach, Henrik Wulff Christensen, Lise Hestbæk. Effectiveness of chiropractic manipulation versus sham manipulation for recurrent headaches in children aged 7-14 years – a randomized clinical trial. Chiropractic and Manual Therapies, 2021. https://chiromt.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12998-020-00360-3