Relief of depressive symptoms in an elderly patient with low back pain

While non-musculoskeletal complaints as a chief complaint make up a small percentage of chiropractic practice, chiropractors see large numbers of patients with low back pain and depression. There is scant literature about the effect of chiropractic care as a treatment for depression. There are reports of other complementary and alternative medicine CAM treatments for patients with depression as well as reports of depression screening and awareness in chiropractic practice. This patient's depression improved while under chiropractic care for her low back pain. This may have been due to a variety of factors, such as natural progression, therapeutic effect of touch, patient-doctor interaction, or improvement secondary to the improvement of her back pain.