Does an inversion table work?

The retrieved studies do not test inversion tables at all, so I cannot give you a number. This search surfaced nothing comparing an inversion table to a fake table, to exercise, or to doing nothing [1][2][3]. That absence is a fact about the search, not proof the device is useless.

What the records do show is nearby. Pain and disability do not track each other: in 23 chronic back pain patients, pain intensity did not correlate with functional disability at all [1]. So a device that briefly feels good under a mild stretch tells you little about whether it changes your life. The one record that used the closest thing to spinal decompression was a small trial of only 48 people, 12 per group, on a motorized axial decompression table, not an inversion table, and it followed them for just 3 months [2]. That evidence is weak by its own terms, small and short.

Physical activity, by contrast, was linked to lower odds of chronic back trouble: very active adults had about 23% lower odds than inactive ones in 60,134 people [3]. That is cross-sectional and cannot prove cause [3]. The burden of proof sits on whoever sells you a table, not on you. Unmonitored head-down hanging can raise blood pressure and eye pressure, a documented risk regardless of the record count; general knowledge, not these records.

My call: no trial here shows an inversion table beats anything real, so try it only cautiously and don't count on it. Confidence: not clear.