The short-term effect of spinal manipulation in the treatment of infantilecolic: A randomized controlled clinical trial with a blinded observer

Objective: To determine whether there is a short-term effect of spinal mani pulation 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 suburb Ballerup (Copenhagen, Denmark). Subjects: Infants seen by the health visitor nurses, who fulfilled the diag nostic 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 th e dimethicone group compared with 2.4 hours in the manipulation group (P = .04). On days 8 through Il, crying was reduced by I hour for the dimethicon e group, whereas crying in the manipulation group was reduced by 2.7 hours (P = .004). From trial day 5 onward the manipulation group did significantl y better that the dimethicone group. Conclusion: Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving infantile colic.