Association Between Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Low Back Pain With or Without Sciatica and Opioid Use Disorder: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Previous research suggests patients receiving spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for low back pain (LBP) are less likely to be prescribed opioids. However, the clinical implications of this finding are unclear. We tested the hypothesis that opioid-naïve adults receiving SMT for LBP are less likely to develop opioid use disorder (OUD) compared to matched controls prescribed ibuprofen over 2 years follow-up.

Methods

We queried a United States data resource (TriNetX) for patients age ≥ 18 years with a new episode of LBP with/without sciatica from 2015 to 2023 (allowing for up to 2 years of follow-up to 2025), excluding those with serious pathology, OUD, and opioid prescription. We divided patients into cohorts: (1) SMT and (2) ambulatory ibuprofen prescriptio

SUBMITTER: Trager RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12447351 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature