Mechanical neck pain—neck pain without neurological compromise, often without a specific cause—is associated with a loss of mobility, poor activity tolerance, increased pressure pain sensitivity (or hypersensitivity to a normal stimulus), and increased joint position sense error (JPSE—difficulty reproducing the same movement when repeated multiple times). Patients with mechanical neck pain often seek treatment from doctors of chiropractic. Let’s look at how high-velocity, low-amplitude (HVLA) manipulation—the primary form of treatment used by chiropractors, commonly referred to as an adjustment—helps these patients…

In a 2018 study involving 54 patients with mechanical neck pain, participants received either HVLA cervical thrust manipulation or a sham cervical thrust manipulation. Evaluations conducted immediately following treatment showed that patients in the HVLA group experienced improvements with regards to JPSE (specifically neck rotation and extension), pressure pain threshold, and disability. (A related study showed that patients who received HVLA cervical thrust manipulation experienced an immediate 41% improvement in JPSE.)

A week later, the participants in the HVLA group continued to experience improvements related to disability. Again, this was after just a single treatment. Typically, doctors of chiropractic administer a series of HVLA manipulations one to three times per week for one to two weeks followed by a re-assessment to determine if care should continue (at the same frequency or at a reduced frequency) or if the patient should be released from care and advised to return for care on an as-needed or maintenance basis.

Chiropractors often combine several treatment approaches when managing patients with mechanical neck pain and other musculoskeletal conditions to both reduce pain and improve function. A partial list of commonly applied services include the following: HVLA manipulation (thrust with cavitation), mobilization (non-thrust), soft tissue therapies (massage, vibration, muscle release techniques, trigger point therapy, myofascial release, and more), home and/or in-office exercise training, nutritional counseling, physical therapy modalities, and more. Chiropractic HVLA manipulation has strong research support as being a VERY affective management approach for patients with either acute or chronic neck pain!