Dear Bernard, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments by physiobase and your self about manipulation . This is a short term and often inneffective manual treatment. I do not advocate manipulation any more than for a quick rom improver .The studies you and physiobase have mentioned bear out my own comments made in other posts about manipulation.
I do however advocate MOBILISATION treatments for its powerful and lasting effects in both spinal pain and its associated referred events. It is not uncommon for doctors and others untrained in joint treatment to lump all manual therapies together and consider all as effective or ineffective as another. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a scientist you are no doubt trained , as I am , to remain objective and somewhat sceptical about claims made without substantiation. Mobilisation is well covered in the literature. The methods taught and often used in clinical trials however , are of a number of different varieties of the early Maitland model. I have found this model to stop well short of ideal.
My own work , on both the better mobilisation method, and the theory to explain its effectiveness , have been posted here over the last few weeks. While not setting out to achieve the impossible , I am always happy to engage in a discussion with those , like yourself who have yet to experience the best effects of mobilisation. The more I reach out , the more likely someone will listen. Perhaps even you.