A recent article in JMPT investigating outcomes of acute and chronic low back pain, found that patients with nerve problems (radiculopathy) recovered equally well with chiropractic treatment as patients without radiculopathy.

The article, by Peterson et al, was investigating whether there were any positive predictive factors to suggest which patients would respond best to chiropractic treatment. The research, based on a group of 523 patients found that those patients who had responded  best after one week of treatment, were the ones who were doing the best one month and three months after they were first seen.

Summary: generally, those patients who do best with chiropractic treatment will be the ones who are feeling better early on in their course of treatment. The presence of a nerve problem does not make the patient any less  likely to respond to chiropractic treatment.