Abstract
Objective: To determine whether there is a short-term effect of spinal manipulation in the treatment
of infantile colic. Design: A randomized controlled trial. Setting: A private chiropractic practice and the National Health Service's health visitor
nurses in the uburb Ballerup (Copenhagen, Denmark). Subjects: Infants seen by the health visitor nurses, who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria
for infantile colic. Intervention: One group received spinal manipulation for 2 weeks, the other was treated with the
drug dimethicone for 2 weeks. Outcome Measure: Changes in daily hours of crying as registered in a colic diary. Results: By trial days 4 to 7, hours of crying were reduced by 1 hour in the dimethicone group
compared with 2.4 hours in the manipulation group (P = .04). On days 8 through 11, crying was reduced by 1 hour for the dimethicone group,
whereas crying in the manipulation group was reduced by 2.7 hours (P = .004). From trial day 5 onward the manipulation group did significantly better
that the dimethicone group. Conclusion: Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving infantile colic. (J Manipulative Physiol
Ther 1999;22:517–22)
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Received in revised form:
February 2,
1999
Received:
January 7,
1999
Footnotes
☆Submit reprint requests to: Jesper M. M. Wiberg, DC, Hold an vej 5, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark.
☆☆Supported by the Danish Health Insurance Fund and the research committee of the Danish Chiropractors Association.
★The preliminary results from this study have been presented in Bürgenstock at the continuing education course of the Association of Swiss Chiropractors, September 11–13, 1997.
Identification
Copyright
© 1999 JMPT. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
