None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The primary focus of this study is dizziness in the community dwelling elderly. Neck pain and dysfunction can cause dizziness and may be an important under-investigated risk factor for falls in the elderly. Neck manipulation is known to be effective for neck pain. There is also preliminary evidence that physical treatments administered to the neck (including manipulation) may improve dizziness. This study will use clinical rigorous research methods to determine whether chiropractic manipulation can be used to successfully treat dizziness, thereby lowering the likelihood of falls in the elderly. Falls in the elderly are a significant public health problem in need of new and innovative management strategies.
Interventions
Chiropractic manipulation of the neck will be administered to the experimental group with or without massage. Chiropractic manipulation will consist of gentle application of manual high velocity low amplitude thrust procedures commonly practised by chiropractors. Treatment will be delivered twice a week over a period of 8 weeks. All treatment sessions will take 30 minutes each. The decision to include or exclude massage will depend on the clinical judgement of the treating investigator in determ
Chiropractic manipulation of the neck will be administered to the experimental group with or without massage. Chiropractic manipulation will consist of gentle application of manual high velocity low amplitude thrust procedures commonly practised by chiropractors. Treatment will be delivered twice a week over a period of 8 weeks. All treatment sessions will take 30 minutes each. The decision to include or exclude massage will depend on the clinical judgement of the treating investigator in determining whether hypertonicity exists in the muscles of the neck.
Sponsors
Dr Michael Azari
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
65 Years to 85 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Neck pain and concommitant dizziness or unsteadiness of three months duration or longer, whether constant or intermittent.
Exclusion criteria
Diagnosed vestibular pathology such as Meniere's disease or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV); history or cerebrovascular accident or myocardial infarct; psychiatric disease; active inflammatory spondyloarthropathies; recent spinal trauma; osteomyelitis; spinal tumours; acute myelopathy; those who have had neck spinal manipulative therapy or neck massage in the last three months.
Outcome results
None listed