OBJECTIVE: To Evaluate the efficacy of spine and head chiropractic therapy (SHCT) on neuropsychological development and incidence of cerebral palsy in very low birth weight premature infants. METHODS: 125 infants were randomly divided into control and SHCT groups. The infants of both groups received conventional therapy, 40 minutes per session for control group and 40 minutes followed by 20 minutes of SHCT for SHCT group. The treatment lasted 3 sessions a week for 20 months. Neuropsychological development, social emotion, social skill and incidence of cerebral palsy were measured. RESULTS: At 24 months corrected age the mental developmental quotient scores of each domain in the SHCT group were higher than those in the control group (gross motor, p < 0.001; fine motor, p < 0.001; adaptation, p < 0.01; social skills, p < 0.05, respectively). Compared with control group, the infants at 24 months corrected age in the SHCT group showed lower overt behavior, implicit behavior and dysregulation domain scores (p < 0.01; p < 0.01; p < 0.05, respectively), incidence of cerebral palsy (p < 0.05) and higher scores in realms of capabilities (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: SHCT for very low birth weight preterm infants can promote neuropsychological development and decrease risk of cerebral palsy.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PDF locator
• publisher