Jeff Langmaid reviews a BMJ Open study on chiropractic spinal manipulation and tramadol prescriptions for radicular low back pain. The research used U.S. data to examine whether spinal manipulation affects opioid prescription rates. Tramadol is a synthetic opioid commonly prescribed for this type of pain.
On today's episode, we're talking all about a new research study. This was in BMJ Open and is titled Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation and Likelihood of Tramadol Prescription in Adults with Radicular Low Back Pain. A retrospective COHORT study using U.S. data. Tramadol, what is it? We hear about it all the time. I can tell you I've heard about it for years and if I had to really make a guesstimate on exactly what it was, I would have been a little bit lost. But this set the record straight right from the get go. It is an atypical synthetic opioid and it is comparatively has lower potency than an opioid medication and that's why it's often been prescribed for low back pain. So I knew it was a pain relieving medication often recommended for people that had radicular symptomatology. I did not know that it actually was a synthetic opioid.
