Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Acute Low Back Pain

The Royal College of General Practitioners, in consultation with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Osteopathic Association of Great Britain, British Chiropractic Association and the National Back Pain Association constructed clinical guidelines on low back pain management, based on extensive international scientific evidence. One of the principal recommendations of the guidelines is "to consider manipulative treatment within the first 6 weeks for patients who need additional help with pain relief or who are failing to return to normal activities" based on high level evidence that within the first six weeks of onset of acute or recurrent low back pain, manipulation provides better short-term improvement in pain and activity levels and higher patient satisfaction than the treatments to which it has been compared.