Chiropractic Adjustments and Cognitive Function

Abstract

Chiropractic has been around for 125+ years helping regulate the nervous system, spinal adjustments can help relieve chronic/nerve pain, realigning the vertebra, which in turn helps the pinched nerve to relax and no longer send out pain signals. Likely this is due to improvement in neural transmission, suggesting that spinal manipulation may offer more than simply pain relief. In this study we tested whether chiropractic adjustments affected cognition. We tested a group of patients who got spinal adjustments and a group who only received therapy such as postural rehabilitation, interferential current, or ultrasound. This small sample size participated in this study by testing their auditory memory, visual memory, and problem-solving skills before and after a specified treatment. We found a significant decrease in pain after treatment, but results showed no significant improvements in cognition. While the current results did not support a change in cognition this may be partially due to the small sample sizes.