Steve Karas, Paul Mintken & Jean-Michel Brismée (2018)
We need to debate the value of manipulative therapy and recognize that we do not always understand from what to attribute our success, Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy, 26:1, 1-2, DOI:10.1080/10669817.2018.1426241
An interesting post mortem was published after the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy (IFOMPT) 2016 conference noting that a ‘pain science conference’ broke out at a manual therapy conference. A not so subtle reality continued at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapist (AAOMPT) 2017 annual conference where less than a third of the presentations were specific to manual therapy. Given the trends in emerging evidence that question the reliability, validity and clinical effectiveness of manual therapy as a standalone intervention, perhaps a good whack on the back of our collective hands was appropriate.