Yelufem

Thank you for your views on the above topic. I do not think its fair to run down an entire profession based on mistakes of one or two professionals. physiotherapy can very well be considered a dangerous profession in the hands of the wrong practitioner as well. I know several patients that have sworn to never see a physiotherapist again. Physiotherapy is not very well supported in terms of evidence for the practice generally anyway. Infact, what is becoming more evident is the condemnation of many of our modalities (most researches do not support these modalities anyway) wherein we are left with more of our manual therapy skills now. So if anything, we should fortify the use of our manual skills and build some evidence for it. A field that is the forte of the Chiropractor. I know a very good chiropractor who has done very well for his patients over here, even in instances when the physios have never been able to help.

My opinion is that every professional should have respect for the other. We are not in allied health for no reason...as the key word is Allied.

I strongly agree with you about evidence based practice. I am all for evidenced based practice and If you read many of my previous posts, you would realise that i advocate the use of mainly evidence based practice. However, new methods of carrying out treatments often do not come out of research, they are born from lateral thinkers who influence research. The reality is, it is very difficult to extrapolate findings from research into practice mainly because the patients studied are never like your patients. This in essence flaws the concept of evidence based practice in general.

And yes, spinal adjustments are strongly evidenced based. Infact there have been several papers written on how to predict when these sdjustments are most likely to work. It all depends on patient selection. If the evidence has pointed that these patients are more likely to respond to manipulation, and the chiro/physio decides to select inappropriately, then it is not the professions fault...but an individual professionals problem.

We physiotherapists should not see ourselves as the know-ers of all, we can learn from a variety of disciplines...an example is the use of acupuncture...this was never a physiotherapy modality until a few years ago...it is not strongly evidenced based however it is now a recognised adjunct for treating low back pain in the UK. It was not us that figured this modality could be helpful, however we showed ability to change and adapt. Thats what we should all preach.

Remember that chiros/osteopaths are building their profession as well, if it was such a quack profession we would not have institutions dishing out degrees for these skills.
I dont see Chiros/Osteopaths/physios...what I see are manual therapists....and this is beginning to emerge as a field on its own...

cheers