The autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis have been shown to be dysfunctional in a number of chronic pain disorders. Spinal manipulation is a therapeutic technique used by manual therapists, which may have widespread neuro-physiological effects. The autonomic nervous system has been implicated to modulate these effects. A theory is proposed that spinal manipulation has the potential to be used as a tool in restoring the autonomic nervous system balance. Further, it is also hypothesised that through its anatomical and physiological connections, the autonomic nervous system activity following a thoracic spinal manipulation may have an effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and therefore pain and healing via modulation of endocrine and physiological processes. To substantiate our hypothesis we provide evidence from manual therapy studies, basic science and animal studies. According to the proposed theory, there will be measurable changes in the neuro-endocrinal mechanisms following a thoracic spinal manipulation. This has far-reaching implications for manual therapy practice and research and in the integration of spinal manipulation in the treatment of a wide array of disorders.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 November 2019.
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#2,987,231
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#784
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#32,612
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Outputs of similar age from Medical Hypotheses
#7
of 58 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 32,023,687 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,201 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 23.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 58 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
