Chiropractic Care of an 8-Year-Old Girl With Nonorganic, Primary Nocturnal Enuresis: A Case Report

Coconut oil rubbing as an easy and safe way to improve symptoms in primary nocturnal enuresis: A randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial

Objective

Enuresis is a common pediatric problem for which, no unique therapy has been suggested. The conventional therapy is effective, but fails in some cases. So, many parents try complementary medicine. Therefore, this study attempted to find if rubbing coconut oil is effective on improving enuresis.

Materials and Methods

This double-blinded randomized clinical was conducted on 120 children aged 6 to 14 years with mono symptomatic nocturnal enuresis, from 2018 to 2019 in Yazd, Iran. The drug and placebo groups applied 6 drops of the coconut and paraffin oil topically on the suprapubic, sacral and flanks areas one time per night, respectively. Urination pattern was daily recorded for a period of 8 weeks by parents, and after one year, they were asked for any improvement by phone call.

Results

The mean frequency of enuresis at the first, second, fourth, and eighth week was lower in the intervention group (p<0.001); this difference between the groups remained after one year. Moreover, there was no side effect requiring any medical attention.

Conclusion

Rubbing coconut oil is effective on improving symptom of primary mono symptomatic enuresis if applied every night for 4 weeks on suprapubic, sacral and flanks areas. This may be related to anticholinergic effect of the oil but its persistent effect for longer time after the end of application period, needs to be investigated in other studies.

The global summit on the efficacy and effectiveness of spinal manipulative therapy for the prevention and treatment of non-musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review of the literature

Background

A small proportion of chiropractors, osteopaths, and other manual medicine providers use spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) to manage non-musculoskeletal disorders. However, the efficacy and effectiveness of these interventions to prevent or treat non-musculoskeletal disorders remain controversial.

Objectives

We convened a Global Summit of international scientists to conduct a systematic review of the literature to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of SMT for the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of non-musculoskeletal disorders.

Global summit

The Global Summit took place on September 14–15, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. It was attended by 50 researchers from 8 countries and 28 observers from 18 chiropractic organizations. At the summit, participants critically appraised the literature and synthesized the evidence.

Systematic review of the literature

We searched MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, and the Index to Chiropractic Literature from inception to May 15, 2019 using subject headings specific to each database and free text words relevant to manipulation/manual therapy, effectiveness, prevention, treatment, and non-musculoskeletal disorders. Eligible for review were randomized controlled trials published in English. The methodological quality of eligible studies was assessed independently by reviewers using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) criteria for randomized controlled trials. We synthesized the evidence from articles with high or acceptable methodological quality according to the Synthesis without Meta-Analysis (SWiM) Guideline. The final risk of bias and evidence tables were reviewed by researchers who attended the Global Summit and 75% (38/50) had to approve the content to reach consensus.

Results

We retrieved 4997 citations, removed 1123 duplicates and screened 3874 citations. Of those, the eligibility of 32 articles was evaluated at the Global Summit and 16 articles were included in our systematic review. Our synthesis included six randomized controlled trials with acceptable or high methodological quality (reported in seven articles). These trials investigated the efficacy or effectiveness of SMT for the management of infantile colic, childhood asthma, hypertension, primary dysmenorrhea, and migraine. None of the trials evaluated the effectiveness of SMT in preventing the occurrence of non-musculoskeletal disorders. Consensus was reached on the content of all risk of bias and evidence tables. All randomized controlled trials with high or acceptable quality found that SMT was not superior to sham interventions for the treatment of these non-musculoskeletal disorders. Six of 50 participants (12%) in the Global Summit did not approve the final report.

Conclusion

Our systematic review included six randomized clinical trials (534 participants) of acceptable or high quality investigating the efficacy or effectiveness of SMT for the treatment of non-musculoskeletal disorders. We found no evidence of an effect of SMT for the management of non-musculoskeletal disorders including infantile colic, childhood asthma, hypertension, primary dysmenorrhea, and migraine. This finding challenges the validity of the theory that treating spinal dysfunctions with SMT has a physiological effect on organs and their function. Governments, payers, regulators, educators, and clinicians should consider this evidence when developing policies about the use and reimbursement of SMT for non-musculoskeletal disorders.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12998-021-00362-9.