Low-level laser therapy appears to facilitate the common form of pain in the neck, a review of research findings.

“It is effective against non-specific pain arising from muscles and joints, where there are no clear causes, such as a herniated disk,” said Jan M. Bjordal, professor of physical therapy at Bergen University College in Norway and a member of the international team reporting to the Internet November 13 issue of The Lancet.

A group led by Dr. Robert Chow brain and mind research institute at the University of Sydney in Australia, surveyed data from 16 controlled trials, a total of 820 people treated the pain in the neck, using a 100-point scale to determine the difference between the results of various treatments.

There were two trials for acute pain in the neck. Those who received a low-level laser therapy, in which a focused beam of radiation in the infrared part of the visual light spectrum, to the painful area of the neck, was 70 percent more likely to report a reduction of more than placebo treatment in width from the ordinary world, report says .

Five trials in people suffering from chronic, persistent neck pain found that those who received laser treatment, four times more likely to have a more reduced compared with placebo. In 11 trials, chronic pain, a 20-point reductions reported about people who receive laser therapy.

Seven of these tests provided the following data as long as 22 weeks. Anesthesia is preserved, with few or no side effects reported.

“The results of low-level laser therapy in this survey compare favorably with other commonly used therapy, especially with pharmacological interventions for which evidence of rare and adverse effects are common,” The Journal report said.

“The consequences turned out pretty good,” said Bjordal. “We believe this combination of mechanisms, and we can not say that the more important. We believe that the anti-inflammatory effect is one of the mechanisms involved.

Pain in the neck, is projected to be a health issue of growing importance in the United States and other countries because of the growing number of older people, so the treatment that requires no drugs and no side effects is attractive.

But we must be careful with reports of the results, said Dr. Andrew Sherman, head of medical rehabilitation of the spine at the Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

“It is true that the pain in the neck becomes more difficult problem in our society,” says Sherman. “Such problems are best treated with a large population, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

U.S. Food and Drug approved laser device for treatment of pain in the neck. But this statement differs from the approved medicines, which requires poof that the drug is safe and effective. Device approval indicates only that the technology is safe.

Health insurance laser therapy for more different from country to country, Bjordal said. “In some countries, it receives a refund, if you make physical therapists,” he said. In other countries, this does not apply. In the United States, Medicare does not cover laser therapy.