The Source / A field guide to feeling better
Wrist & Hand
Small movements do important work. Tingling, a weaker grip or night symptoms deserve more than a guess about posture.
Can you point to it?
Select a label to explore its side of the body
Choose the closest area.
Pick a point on the close-up, or choose from the list below. Each one covers what might be going on, the details that help at a visit, and the research behind it.
Put the symptoms in context
Which fingers are involved, if the symptoms wake you at night, and if your grip is changing: those details can help tell nerve compression apart from a joint or tendon problem. And a neck problem can cause hand symptoms too.
Follow the question
Explore wrist & hand
Each guide explains what the condition is, what the research shows and where it runs out, and when it calls for a different kind of care than ours. An exam is how we look for which one, if any, fits you.
- Condition guide
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Hand tingling, median nerve compression, and why new weakness in the hand matters.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Arm & leg pain
The difference between pain from a joint or muscle and pain traveling along a nerve.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Neck pain
Stiffness, referred pain and nerve symptoms, and the questions our exam sets out to answer.
Understand this condition
Wrist and hand symptoms: where to start
For tingling fingers or a grip that's getting weaker, start with carpal tunnel syndrome. That guide covers the median nerve, the one that gets squeezed at the wrist, which fingers it affects, and when weakness changes the next step.
Not every hand symptom starts in the wrist. Tingling that runs from the neck or down the whole arm is covered in our neck guide and arm-pain guide, along with their warning signs.
Who the carpal tunnel trial below included
The trial below followed people with mild-to-moderate carpal tunnel syndrome. It compared an injection with night splinting, not chiropractic treatment. It didn't include people with severe carpal tunnel syndrome, and it can't tell you what to do if your nerve loss is getting worse.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
The effectiveness of corticosteroid injection versus night splints for carpal tunnel syndrome: 24-month follow-up of a randomized trial
Follow-up of 234 adults randomized to injection or night splinting for mild-to-moderate carpal tunnel syndrome.
What it foundSymptom, function and pain scores did not significantly differ between the groups at 12 or 24 months.
What it can't tell usAbout 71% to 73% responded at 24 months. Severe carpal tunnel syndrome was outside this comparison, and the trial didn't test chiropractic care.
Publication details & citation
Burton et al. The effectiveness of corticosteroid injection versus night splints for carpal tunnel syndrome: 24-month follow-up of a randomized trial. Rheumatology. 2023. DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac219.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.