A neuroscientist’s view: spare children the manipulations of chiropractic quackery

http://theconversation.edu.au/articles/a-neuroscientists-view-spare-children-the-manipulations-of-chiropractic-quackery-493

Published: March 29, 2011 A neuroscientist’s view: spare children the manipulations of chiropractic quackery

Chiropractic, one of the several popular so-called complementary and alternative medicines(1), should never be applied to children. It simply isn’t based on credible scientific evidence.

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Chiropractic maintains that most, if not all diseases, are due to some kind of misalignment of the vertebrae of the spine. The proposed underlying “subluxations” could be corrected by a special manipulation with a “high velocity, low amplitude thrusts” which reconstitute the flow of a mysterious “universal intelligence”. A significant proportion of orthodox chiropractors still hold this view.

The reality is that such chiropractic “subluxations” of the spine simply do not exist and that spinal manipulations have no bearing on general diseases unrelated to the spine.

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Physiotherapy is the only practice based on physical methods that is well integrated and consistent with modern scientific medicine. The improvement of back pain symptoms in some patients undergoing manipulations, such as chiropractic and osteopathy (4) appears to be due to the “placebo effect”.

The “placebo effect” is being increasingly studied by medical researchers and shows how psychological expectations can influence the body by improving some conditions, although there is also the “nocebo effect” which can make things worse.(5)

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There is simply no evidence based on proper clinical trials that spinal manipulation can ameliorate children conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), nocturnal enuresis, infant colic, asthma, or boost to the immune system. (6) Conversely there is extensive documentation of serious adverse effects caused by chiropractic spinal manipulations. (7, 8)

Despite of all this, some chiropractic organizations, for example the American Chiropractic Association, promote chiropractic care of infants and children under the theory that “poor posture and physical injury, including birth trauma, may be common primary causes of illness in children and can have a direct and significant impact not only on spinal mechanics, but on other bodily functions”.

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Chiropractors who perform spinal manipulations on children, for conditions they should know cannot be cured by spinal manipulations, either believe the nonsensical principles of chiropractic – and this would amount to mere self-deception – or are deceiving parents of children. By their own admission “chiropractic is a profession, not a therapy” (9).

References

1) Shorofi S A and Arbon P (2010). Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among hospitalised patients: An Australian study. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 16: 86–91

2) D.D. Palmer’s Religion of Chiropractic – D.D. Palmer letter, May 4, 1911

3) Lawrence DJ, Meeker WC (2007). Chiropractic and CAM utilization: a descriptive review. Chiropr Osteopat 15: 2. doi:10.1186/1746-1340-15-2 (http://chiroandosteo.com/content/15/).

4) Ernst E, Canter PH (2006). “A systematic review of systematic reviews of spinal manipulation”. J R Soc Med 99 (4): 192–196. (http://www.jrsm.org/cgi/content/full/99/4/192)

5) Benedetti F (2009). Placebo effects; understanding the mechanisms in health and disease. Oxford University Press.

6) Glazener CMA, Evans JHC, Cheuk DKL (2009). Complementary and miscellaneous interventions for nocturnal enuresis in children (Review). The Cochrane Library, Issue 1. Wiley Publishers

7) E Ernst (2010). Deaths after chiropractic: a review of published cases. Int J Clinical Practice 64 (8): 1162–1165. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1742-1241.2010.02352.x/abstract)

8) Singh S and Ernst E (2009). Trick or treatment? Alternative medicine on trial. Gorgi Books.

9) Vallone S A, Miller J, Larsdotter A and Barham-Floreani J (2010). Chiropractic approach to the management of children. Chiropractic & Osteopathy, 18:16, http://www.chiroandosteo.com/content/18/1/16

10) Martyr, P. (2002). Paradise of Quacks; an alternative history of medicine in Australia. Macleay Press.

11) Edwards, H. (1997). A skeptic guide to the new age. Published by Australian Skeptics Inc.

Comments

[Rodger Funderberk]

Well, despite the various studies which show its positive effects, chiropracty is still considered a questionable method. In the end, it's up to us to have faith in the method we choose to undergo. We should be careful in choosing the treatment methods we want to undergo. After all, we are submitting our bodies to them.