News posted on February 08, 2009 06:20
A study published in January 2003 investigated whether or
not Chiropractic treatments were based on sound, properly
constructed scientific studies.
In a clinic of an American-trained Chiropractor in Northern
Spain, 180 consecutive patient visits were analyzed. The
practitioner involved did not know beforehand that her
treatment was going to be so analyzed, ruling out practitioner
bias.
The presenting complaint of each patient and the responding
treatment were evaluated and compared to the validity of the
studies supporting that treatment. The supporting studies were
categorized according to the level of supporting evidence used:
Category I for a treatment based on good-quality clinical trial
evidence or Category II for a treatment based on no or poor
trial evidence. The author of the study noted that the complaints
presented by these patients were quite similar to the complaints
presented in two large, population-based studies of Chiropractors
and their patients in North America.
The study found that 68.3% of all the treatments were based
on good-quality studies. When this percentage was compared to
similar studies done on different medical specialties, Chiropractic
was found to have the highest proportion of care based on
properly done scientific studies.
SOURCE: http://www.fcer.org/html/Research/IOMtestimony.htm; Journal of Manipulative Physiol Ther 2003:26;000