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Can Chiropractors and Evidence-Based Manual Therapists Work Together? An Opinion From a Veteran Chiropractor
Abstract
Use of manual therapy in the form of manipulation and massage is evident in the earliest recordings of history. Today, manual therapy is an evidence-based practice that can be used with predictable results in the treatment of a variety of neuromusculoskeletal problems. However, for some manual therapists, treatment is still based on a belief system that incorporates vitalism, energy healing, and other metaphysical concepts. Cooperation of practitioners in researching the effects of manual therapy would require uniformity based upon the guidelines of science, following rules for selection of an evidence-based therapy that produces predictable and replicable results. Such an approach would not allow contami- nation by dogma or by an agenda that is designed more to support a belief system than to find the truth. The chiropractic profession, which began with a founding father in 1895, is identified primarily by its use of manipulation. But chiropractic is based upon a vertebral subluxation theory that is generally categorized as supporting a belief system. The words "manipulation" and "subluxation" in a chiropractic context have meanings that are different from the meanings in evidence-based literature. An orthopedic subluxation, a partial disloca- tion or displacement of a joint, can sometimes benefit from manipulation or mobilization when there are joint-related symptoms. A chiropractic subluxation, however, is often an undetectable or asymptomatic "spinal lesion" that is alleged to be a cause of disease. Such a subluxation, which has never been proven to exist, is "adjusted" by chiropractors, who manipulate the spine to restore and maintain health. The reasons for use of manipulation/ mobilization by an evidence-based manual therapist are not the same as the reason for use of adjustment/manipulation by most chiropractors. Only evidence-based chiropractors, who have renounced subluxation dogma, can be part of a team that would research the effects of manipulation without bias.
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Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is a frequently applied therapy for back and neck pain. Serious complications of SMT are presented primarily in case reports. Many patients seen by physicians also seek care from therapists applying manipulative techniques. Therefore, background information on the risks of SMT is essential for physicians.
Relevant case reports, surveys, and review articles were identified using a comprehensive search of online and bibliographical databases. For every case, a record was made of first author, publication year, country, age and sex of the patient, background of the manipulator, preexisting conditions, type of complication, and course of the complication. Based on case reports and surveys, an estimation was made of the risk for the most frequently reported complications: vertebrobasilar accidents (VBAs) and cauda equina syndrome (CES).
We derived 295 complications of spinal manipulations from the literature: 165 VBAs; 61 cases with disc herniation or progression to CES; 13 cerebral complications other than VBAs; and 56 other types of complications. The average age of patients with VBA was 38 years. Vertebrobasilar accidents occur mainly after a cervical manipulation with a rotatory component. Estimates of VBA range from 1 per 20,000 patients to 1 per 1 million cervical manipulations. The incidence of CES is estimated to be less that 1 per 1 million treatments.
It is difficult to estimate the incidence of SMT complications, as they are probably underreported in the literature. Most non-VBA complications can be prevented by excluding patients with contraindications for SMT. Patients who develop complications such as CES should be treated as soon as possible. VBAs, however, are difficult to prevent and treat. Referral for SMT should not be made to practitioners applying rotatory cervical manipulation. Information about the risk of VBA should be included in an informed consent procedure for cervical manipulation with thrust techniques.
There are few data on the relative effectiveness and costs of treatments for low back pain. We randomly assigned 321 adults with low back pain that persisted for seven days after a primary care visit to the McKenzie method of physical therapy, chiropractic manipulation, or a minimal intervention (provision of an educational booklet). Patients with sciatica were excluded. Physical therapy or chiropractic manipulation was provided for one month (the number of visits was determined by the practitioner but was limited to a maximum of nine); patients were followed for a total of two years. The bothersomeness of symptoms was measured on an 11-point scale, and the level of dysfunction was measured on the 24-point Roland Disability Scale.
After adjustment for base-line differences, the chiropractic group had less severe symptoms than the booklet group at four weeks (P=0.02), and there was a trend toward less severe symptoms in the physical therapy group (P=0.06). However, these differences were small and not significant after transformations of the data to adjust for their non-normal distribution. Differences in the extent of dysfunction among the groups were small and approached significance only at one year, with greater dysfunction in the booklet group than in the other two groups (P=0.05). For all outcomes, there were no significant differences between the physical-therapy and chiropractic groups and no significant differences among the groups in the numbers of days of reduced activity or missed work or in recurrences of back pain. About 75 percent of the subjects in the therapy groups rated their care as very good or excellent, as compared with about 30 percent of the subjects in the booklet group (P<0.001). Over a two-year period, the mean costs of care were 429 for the chiropractic group, and $153 for the booklet group.
For patients with low back pain, the McKenzie method of physical therapy and chiropractic manipulation had similar effects and costs, and patients receiving these treatments had only marginally better outcomes than those receiving the minimal intervention of an educational booklet. Whether the limited benefits of these treatments are worth the additional costs is open to question.
More than 100 years after its inception the chiropractic profession has failed to define itself in a way that is understandable, credible and scientifically coherent. This failure has prevented the profession from establishing its cultural authority over any specific domain of health care.
To present a model for the chiropractic profession to establish cultural authority and increase market share of the public seeking chiropractic care.
The continued failure by the chiropractic profession to remedy this state of affairs will pose a distinct threat to the future viability of the profession. Three specific characteristics of the profession are identified as impediments to the creation of a credible definition of chiropractic: Departures from accepted standards of professional ethics; reliance upon obsolete principles of chiropractic philosophy; and the promotion of chiropractors as primary care providers. A chiropractic professional identity should be based on spinal care as the defining clinical purpose of chiropractic, chiropractic as an integrated part of the healthcare mainstream, the rigorous implementation of accepted standards of professional ethics, chiropractors as portal-of-entry providers, the acceptance and promotion of evidence-based health care, and a conservative clinical approach.
This paper presents the spine care model as a means of developing chiropractic cultural authority and relevancy. The model is based on principles that would help integrate chiropractic care into the mainstream delivery system while still retaining self-identity for the profession.
Subluxation syndrome is a legitimate, potentially testable, theoretical construct for which there is little experimental evidence. Acceptable as hypothesis, the widespread assertion of the clinical meaningfulness of this notion brings ridicule from the scientific and health care communities and confusion within the chiropractic profession. We believe that an evidence-orientation among chiropractors requires that we distinguish between subluxation dogma vs. subluxation as the potential focus of clinical research. We lament efforts to generate unity within the profession through consensus statements concerning subluxation dogma, and believe that cultural authority will continue to elude us so long as we assert dogma as though it were validated clinical theory.
The vertebral columns of six individuals were studied. Three were infants, one a full term newborn female that failed to breathe after birth; the other two, a male and a female, were full term infants who died of a respiratory disorder within a week after birth. The remainder were adults: a 35 yr old male, a 73 yr old male and a 76 yr old female. As soon as the vertebral column was excised it was immersed in a physiological saline solution at body temperature to insure maximum flexibility of its joints during the testing that immediately followed. A careful inspection both before and after the testing revealed that each vertebral column was normal for the age of the individual from which it was excised. A standard drill press was used for the tests. It had a rotating handle that allowed the forceful lowering of the chuck, to which was attached a Dillon force gauge certified to be accurate to within ± 1% of full scale reading. It was a compression model with marked dial increments of 10 pounds up to a capacity of 1,000 pounds. The range of maximum compressive force, or breaking point, that could be applied to the individual vertebrae of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions of the newborn and adult columns before they became irreversibly collapsed is about 2 to 7 times as big for adults as for newborns. In newborns the difference between cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae is small. In adults, the lumbar are stronger.
Several theories have been put forth in attempts to explain the possible mechanisms by which patients presumed to be suffering from any of a variety of internal organ diseases are occasionally found to respond quickly and dramatically to therapies delivered to purely somatic structures (e.g., spinal manipulation). The purpose of this review is to examine the scientific bases upon which these sorts of clinical phenomenaight be interpreted.
A review was conducted of over 350 articles that have appeared in the scientific literature over the last 75 years. Initially, a MEDLINE search was performed; however, because of the variability of indexing terms employed by investigators within a wide variety of biomedical disciplines, most of this literature had to be located article by article.
At present, there have been no appropriately controlled studies that establish that spinal manipulation or any other form of somatic therapy represents a valid curative strategy for the treatment of any internal organ disease. Furthermore, current scientific knowledge also fails to support the existence of a plausible biological mechanism that could account for a causal segmentally or regionally related "somato-visceral disease" relationship. On the other hand, it has now been firmly established that somatic dysfunction is notorious in its ability to create overt signs and symptoms that can mimic, or simulate (rather than cause), internal organ disease.
The proper differential diagnosis of somatic vs. visceral dysfunction represents a challenge for both the medical and chiropractic physician. The afferent convergence mechanisms, which can create signs and symptoms that are virtually indistinguishable with respect to their somatic vs. visceral etiologies, need to be appreciated by all portal-of-entry health care providers, to insure timely referral of patients to the health specialist appropriate to their condition. Furthermore, it is not unreasonable that this somatic visceral-disease mimicry could very well account for the "cures" of presumed organ disease that have been observed over the years in response to various somatic therapies (e.g., spinal manipulation, acupuncture, Rolfing, Qi Gong, etc.) and may represent a common phenomenon that has led to "holistic" health care claims on the part of such clinical disciplines.
On September 18, 1895, Daniel David Palmer manipulated the spine of Harvey Lilliard, allegedly restoring Mr. Lilliard's sense of hearing and founding the practice of chiropractic.1 From this beginning, despite decades of persecution from government and organized medicine, chiropractors have become the third largest group of health professionals in the United States (after physicians and dentists) who have primary contact with patients. Chiropractors are licensed to practice in all 50 states, Medicare covers chiropractic care for radiographically proved subluxation of the vertebral spine, 45 states have state-mandated benefits for chiropractic, and an increasing number of insurance plans and managed-care organizations . . .
To assess the status of managed care and insurance coverage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and the integration of such services into managed care.
A literature review and information search were conducted to determine which new insurers had special policies for CAM from 1999 to 2000. Telephone interviews were conducted with a sample of 6 new managed care organizations (MCOs) or insurers identified in 2000 and a nonrepresentative cohort of 4 of the original 18 MCOs and insurers who responded both to the original survey in 1997 and again in 1998 to determine trends.
This study constitutes the results of the third year of an ongoing annual survey. For the year 2000, a total of 14 new companies were identified as offering some CAM coverage. Survey results were analyzed for 6 of these who responded to the current survey as well as the results of the cohort mentioned above.
Most of the insurers interviewed offer some coverage for the following: nutrition counseling, biofeedback psychotherapy, acupuncture, preventive medicine, chiropractic, osteopathy, and physical therapy. All new companies indicated that market demand was a primary motivator for covering CAM. Factors determining whether insurers would offer coverage for additional therapies included potential cost-effectiveness, consumer interest, and demonstrable clinical efficacy. Among the most common obstacles listed for incorporating CAM into mainstream healthcare were lack of research on clinical or cost-effectiveness, economics, ignorance about CAM, provider competition, and lack of standards of practice.
Consumer demand for CAM is motivating more MCOs and insurance companies to assess the clinical and cost benefits of incorporating CAM. Outcomes studies for both conventional and CAM therapies are needed to help create a healthcare system based on treatments that work, whether they are conventional, complementary, alternative, or integrative medicine.
A multi-employer database that links medical, prescription drug, absence, and short term disability data at the patient level was analyzed to uncover the most costly physical and mental health conditions affecting American businesses. A unique methodology was developed involving the creation of patient episodes of care that incorporated employee productivity measures of absence and disability. Data for 374,799 employees from six large employers were analyzed. Absence and disability losses constituted 29% of the total health and productivity related expenditures for physical health conditions, and 47% for all of the mental health conditions examined. The top-10 most costly physical health conditions were: angina pectoris; essential hypertension; diabetes mellitus; mechanical low back pain; acute myocardial infarction; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; back disorders not specified as low back; trauma to spine and spinal cord; sinusitis; and diseases of the ear, nose and throat or mastoid process. The most costly mental health disorders were: bipolar disorder, chronic maintenance; depression; depressive episode in bipolar disease; neurotic, personality and non-psychotic disorders; alcoholism;, anxiety disorders; schizophrenia, acute phase; bipolar disorders, severe mania; nonspecific neurotic, personality and non-psychotic disorders; and psychoses. Implications for employers and health plans in examining the health and productivity consequences of common health conditions are discussed.
Chiropractic is the best established of the alternative health care professions. Although marginalized for much of the 20th century, it has entered the mainstream of health care, gaining both legitimacy and access to third-party payers. However, the profession's efforts to validate the effectiveness of spinal manipulative therapy, its principal modality, have yielded only modest and often contrary results. At the same time, reimbursement is shrinking, the number of practitioners is growing, and competition from other healing professions is increasing. The profession's efforts to establish a role in primary care are meeting resistance, and its attempts to broaden its activities in alternative medicine have inherent limitations. Although patients express a high level of satisfaction with chiropractic treatment and politicians are sympathetic to it, this may not be enough as our nation grapples to define the health care system that it can afford.
There was little or no difference in pain reduction or the ability to perform everyday activities between people with low-back pain who received spinal manipulation and those who received other advocated therapies. This review of 39 trials found that spinal manipulation was more effective in reducing pain and improving the ability to perform everyday activities than sham (fake) therapy and therapies already known to be unhelpful. However, it was no more or less effective than medication for pain, physical therapy, exercises, back school or the care given by a general practitioner.
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