Fibromyalgia: what upper cervical research has looked at

Everything hurts, sleep doesn't restore you, and the blood work is normal. Someone has suggested, kindly or not, that it might be in your head.

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Illustration: a tangled blue thread that runs out into one clear line

Fibromyalgia is often a diagnosis people reach after everything else has been ruled out. One randomized trial has tested what happens when care at the top of the neck is added to a full program for people with fibromyalgia, and followed them for a year. It also measured sleep, anxiety and low mood.

1 study on this page

Designs: Randomized controlled trial
Published: 2015

Where these studies sit, by design and year

1 study, published 2015. Strongest design: controlled trial.

the studies

What each study looked at

Strongest study design first. The dots show the design, from a single case (one dot) to a controlled trial (four). How to read this library

Randomized controlled trial2015Hands-on care at C1 and C2

Fibromyalgia: 120 people, with and without upper neck care added to the same program

Who and how many: 120 people (52 women) with fibromyalgia and confirmed C1-C2 joint dysfunction, at a university research laboratory.
What was measured: Both groups had the same one-year multimodal program, and one group also received hands-on care at the top of the neck. Measures: the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, pain catastrophizing, pressure pain thresholds, sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), the Beck anxiety and depression inventories, and 3D posture, at the start, at 12 weeks and one year later.
What was found: The group that also had upper neck care did significantly better over time on every measure: fibromyalgia impact, pain measures, sleep quality, anxiety, depression and posture.
Limits: One research center, and the result needs repeating elsewhere. The upper neck care was a hands-on manual method aimed at C1 and C2, a different style from orthogonal upper cervical care like ours.

Read the abstract on PubMed → Source 1

before you draw conclusions

What this research does and doesn't tell you

One trial, from one research center, with a method that differs from ours. It is the strongest single study in this library on a whole-body condition, and it still needs repeating elsewhere before anyone can lean on it.

Published research can't predict what will happen for any one person, including you. Studies report averages and single stories; your nervous system is your own. That is why The Lazar Method^™ starts with measurement, not with a promise.

We measure first, so the answer is about you, not an average.

Before any correction we measure how your nervous system is regulating your body: heart rate variability, thermal and muscle tone scans, PostureIQ™, and digital X-ray of the upper neck. QSM3, the method used at our office, is a progression of NUCCA. Dr. Jonathan Lazar, D.C., or someone personally trained by him, will go over your scans and images with you.

If we can help, we'll tell you. If we can't, we'll help you find someone who can.

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This page is educational and is not medical advice. Keep the doctors who know you in the loop.

citations

Sources

Moustafa IM, Diab AA. 2015. The addition of upper cervical manipulative therapy in the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial. Rheumatol Int 35(7):1163-74. PubMed 25782585 · DOI 10.1007/s00296-015-3248-7

Titles are quoted exactly as published. Sources checked 2026-11-03.

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