BMJ  2003;327:395 (16 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7411.395

Letter

Manual therapy is component of physiotherapy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The paper by Korthals-de Bos et al on the cost effectiveness of physiotherapy, manual therapy, and general practitioner care for neck pain gave the impression that physiotherapists are less effective and more costly than manual therapists in treating neck pain.1

In the United Kingdom manual therapy is a fundamental and integral component of physiotherapists' treatment and management of neck pain, when indicated. All physiotherapists in this department, who trained at different physiotherapy schools in the United Kingdom and Australia, have been trained in manual therapy. Continuing professional development ensures that such skills are maintained and developed beyond graduate level for a therapist's entire career.

We also believe that the study by Korthals-de Bos et al is not clinically relevant when "specific manual therapy mobilisations" by a physiotherapist are discouraged for the purposes of comparing treatment groups receiving physiotherapy and manual therapy. Manual therapy is a component of physiotherapy. . . . [Full text of this article]

Deanne M Quartermaine, senior physiotherapist

deanne.quartermaine@northglasgow.scot.nhs.uk

Graham MacGregor, senior physiotherapist

Physiotherapy Outpatient Department, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow G31 2ER


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Relevant Article

Cost effectiveness of physiotherapy, manual therapy, and general practitioner care for neck pain: economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial • Commentary: Bootstrapping simplifies appreciation of statistical inferences
Ingeborg B C Korthals-de Bos, Jan L Hoving, Maurits W van Tulder, Maureen P M H Rutten-van Mölken, Herman J Adèr, Henrica C W de Vet, Bart W Koes, Hindrik Vondeling, Lex M Bouter, and Marcus Müllner
BMJ 2003 326: 911. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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