{"id":41426,"date":"2011-11-06T16:46:22","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T16:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/spinal-fusion-chiropractic-and-subluxation\/"},"modified":"2011-11-06T16:46:22","modified_gmt":"2011-11-06T16:46:22","slug":"spinal-fusion-chiropractic-and-subluxation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/medicine\/spinal-fusion-chiropractic-and-subluxation.php","title":{"rendered":"Spinal Fusion: Chiropractic and Subluxation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A spirited exchange about chiropractic arose in response to a recent post proposing “The Cure”<\/a> for the legalization of implausible and unproven diagnostic methods and treatments. Some comments pointed to the implausibility of the chiropractic “subluxation” and the lack of robust evidence of efficacy\/effectiveness for spinal manipulation, as well as the difficulty of understanding what exactly “chiropractic” is, or does, that distinguishes it from other manual therapists.  In response, other comments were posted positing that the Science-Based Medicine blog “is not informed  on contemporary chiropractic practice,” that “the profession does not support [the chiropractic] subluxation as a cause of disease,” that chiropractors who treat the chiropractic subluxation are “on the fringe,”  and that the chiropractic “subluxation” is no longer taught in chiropractic colleges as a clinically relevant concept, but merely as an artifact of chiropractic history.<\/p>

However, a review of recent chiropractic literature does not appear to support the latter opinions.  The same concerns as raised on SBM are shared by chiropractors themselves and are discussed in articles appearing in peer-reviewed chiropractic journals. Nor is the chiropractic literature as sanguine on the demise of the chiropractic “subluxation” as a clinically relevant condition which is both diagnosable and treatable.<\/p>

Despite the concerns expressed by chiropractors themselves, the chiropractic literature continues to discuss the chiropractic “subulxation” as if it were a clinically relevant condition subject to diagnosis and amenable to treatment for both non-musculoskeletal and musculoskeletal conditions.  This same view of the “subluxation” is taught in chiropractic colleges in North America and Australia.<\/span><\/p>

Chiropractic 101: the subluxation<\/h3>

A June, 2011, article in the journal Chiropractic and Manual Therapies explored, as the title explains, The prevalence of the term subluxation in North American English-language Doctor of Chiropractic Programs<\/a><\/em>.  The authors, one from the School of Education at the Indiana Institute of  Technology and the other a D.C. on the faculty of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic in Connecticut and the School of Chiropractic and Sports Science at Murdoch University in Australia, studied the academic catalogs of 16 North American chiropractic colleges for use of the term “subluxation.”  The authors chose these catalogs as an indication of “what domains of knowledge are taught in the  classroom and what domains are evaluated in assuring student competence.”<\/p>

Their conclusion?<\/p>

The concept of the subluxation in chiropractic is a controversial subject with a paucity of evidence. With the exception of three schools, all English-language DCPs [Doctor of Chiropractic Programs] in North America mention the concept of the subluxation either in course titles or descriptions and\/or their respective missions. Despite the lack of evidence for the subluxation construct, it appears to be very much a key part of chiropractic education.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Some schools may state that they are not subluxation-focused or heavily engaged in the teaching of subluxation. Nonetheless, most schools continue to teach about the subluxation in what seems to be more than just a historical context. We believe that this puts the profession in an awkward position because the skeptic and\/or critic of subluxation can point to chiropractic education as outdated and unscientific. Chiropractic education will have to address this issue if the chiropractic education enterprise wishes to become scientifically competitive with other healthcare sciences and produce graduates who are critical thinkers prepared as the evidence changes to change their practice and throughout their careers.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The authors specifically rejected the notion that the subluxation was taught simply as an historical concept:<\/p>

One might argue that a historical presentation of the subluxation may be all we are finding references to in our research of the DCP curricula. This would be a reasonable argument if the subluxation was mentioned in only one course in a DCP program or if it was only in what was described as a philosophy course. This, in fact, only occurred at two colleges (Texas Chiropractic College and the University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic), however, with an aggregate average of 13.5 appearances [in the catalogs] and many of those in technique classes it seems unlikely that this is purely to explain the history of [the] term in the chiropractic profession.<\/p><\/blockquote>

In support of their conclusions, the authors referenced other research finding:<\/p>