Effect of Chiropractic Care on Oculomotor Outcomes in Persistent Post-Concussion Syndrome

The potential impact of chiropractic care on mild traumatic brain injury and sport-related concussion is an interesting area of study. This week, a cool paper on the impact of chiropractic care on subjects with persistent post-concussion syndrome!

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when an external force to the head causes a change in typical brain function affecting neurologic function. Diagnosis and categorization of TBI severity is currently subjective and open to bias and it is challenging to predict an individual’s outcome. Symptoms can vary depending on the neurologic area of injury. However, visual symptoms are common after even mild TBI (mTBI) due to the many areas of the brain which are involved in processing vision and controlling the eyes. These can include oculomotor dysfunctions – including disorders of convergence and accommodation, poor fixation, slower or less accurate saccades, poor pursuit movements, and modification of the vestibulo-occular reflex (VOR). Other common symptoms can impact tasks that require attentional, inhibitive, or visuospatial processing. 

This study aimed to investigate if a chiropractic intervention intended to reduce spinal proprioceptive dysregulation could alter some of the commonly reported defects in eye-tracking function and spatial awareness in subjects with self-reported long-term mTBI symptoms for more than 3 months (persistent post-concussion syndrome [PPCS]).While spinal movement alterations are a common rehabilitation target, little is known about whether improving spinal amplitude is associated with improved pain and disability. Previous systematic reviews have examined the relationship between spinal movement alterations, disability and pain intensity, but meta-analyses have been more limited.

It is important to note that research into how chiropractic affects the brain is still in its infancy. However, research suggests that chiropractic adjustments can lead to changes in multimodal sensory integration involving visual and auditory inputs and motor and motor learning outputs.

In this study, chiropractic was found to improve some aspects of visual function, particularly gaze stability, when compared to age-matched controls. This reinforces the concept that some of the ongoing visual symptoms related to PPCS may be the result of abnormalities in the cervical spine. 

This week’s Research Review: Effect of Chiropractic Care on Oculomotor Outcomes in Persistent Post-Concussion Syndrome

This paper was published in JMPT (2024)

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