Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2005 | Debate
Subluxation: dogma or science?
Authors:
Joseph C Keating Jr, Keith H Charlton, Jaroslaw P Grod, Stephen M Perle, David Sikorski, James F Winterstein
Published in:
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies
|
Issue 1/2005
Login to get access
Abstract
Subluxation syndrome is a legitimate, potentially testable, theoretical construct for which there is little experimental evidence. Acceptable as hypothesis, the widespread assertion of the clinical meaningfulness of this notion brings ridicule from the scientific and health care communities and confusion within the chiropractic profession. We believe that an evidence-orientation among chiropractors requires that we distinguish between subluxation dogma vs. subluxation as the potential focus of clinical research. We lament efforts to generate unity within the profession through consensus statements concerning subluxation dogma, and believe that cultural authority will continue to elude us so long as we assert dogma as though it were validated clinical theory.