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Massage therapy may be more effective for some lower back pain than traditional medical care, according to a new study.

Researchers followed 401 people who had low back pain for at least three months. The patients, who had no identified cause for their pain, were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a relaxation massage, a structural massage group or a usual medical care group without massage.

Participants in the massage groups received an hour of massage once a week for 10 weeks. After the therapy researchers tested symptoms and measured a patient's ability to perform daily activities. They remeasured at six months and 1 year after starting massage therapy.

Patients in the massage groups experienced more improvement in their low back pain than normal medical therapies.

There were some limitations to the study: Participants were mainly white and those receiving standard medical care were aware they did not receive massage, which may have led to them reporting worse results.

The low-back pain study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

There were no differences between patients receiving structural massage, a method that releases tension in specific tissues and joint structures in an attempt to restore healthy functioning of the muscular and nervous systems, and relaxation massage, a mixture of maneuvers used to relax the massaged muscles and the person receiving the massage.