What kind of treatment helps low back pain?

This study recently published in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation compared the outcomes for three of the most common therapies:

"Objective: To compare spinal manipulation, back school and individual physiotherapy in the treatment of chronic low back pain."

This was a randomized trial involving 210 patients with chronic, non-specific low back pain over a 12 month follow-up period. Here's what the respective treatment plans involved:

"Back school and individual physiotherapy scheduled 15 1-hour-sessions for 3 weeks. Back school included: group exercise, education/ ergonomics; individual physiotherapy: exercise, passive mobilization and soft-tissue treatment. Spinal manipulation, given according to Manual Medicine, scheduled 4 to 6 20’-sessions once-a-week."

What did the data lead the researchers to conclude?

"Spinal manipulation provided better short and long-term functional improvement, and more pain relief in the follow-up than either back school or individual physiotherapy."