For the past five years, the University of Western States Center for Outcomes Studies has been conducting a randomized control trial (RTC) to assess how manual adjustments can alleviate cervicogenic headaches. The trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. It is a community-based, observer-blind RTC and the first full-scale RTC assessing the dose-response of spinal manipulation therapy outcomes for cervicogenic headaches.
The Center for Outcomes Studies has recently published an in-depth paper that describes the protocols used in this RTC with the intention to guide other researchers on how to effectively structure and recreate a similar multiyear, multi-million dollar randomized control trial.
Results of the study have not been published yet because there are still active patients in the study. Once the patients have completed the study, the Center for Outcomes Studies will analyze the data and start publishing results.