Chiropractic for paediatric conditions: substantial evidence?

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2766

Published 9 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2766
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2766

Observations

Chiropractic for paediatric conditions: substantial evidence?

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Exeter

Edzard.Ernst@pms.ac.uk

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

The vice president of the British Chiropractic Association,Richard Brown, writes that there is "substantial evidence forthe BCA to have made claims that chiropractic can help variouschildhood conditions."¹ The association made similar statementsin a press release,² because the science writer Simon Singhquestioned statements made on the association’s websiteabout childhood asthma, otitis, colic, feeding problems, sleepingproblems, and prolonged crying.³ To back up his statement Brownprovided 19 references.⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ ¹² ¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹ ²²

Several of these references do not contain data relating tochiropractic treatment of the above named conditions.⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹¹⁵ (See table.) Of the remaining 15, eight articles do not referto controlled clinical trials but to retrospective analyses,observational studies, questionnaire surveys, and case reports,which tell us little about effectiveness.⁴ ¹² ¹⁴ ¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁹ ²¹²² Here I will evaluate the remaining seven articles in moredetail.⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ¹³ ¹⁸ ²⁰

View this table:

The 19 articles listed as evidence by the British Chiropractic Association

The "pilot study" by Bronfort . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Quackery, chiropractic and alternative medicine: Peter C G�tzsche
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Substantial evidence?: Jennifer E. Bolton
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No evidence favoring chiropractic: Joe Magrath
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Interpreting insufficient evidence: open to judgement: Adrian R White
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Re: Substantial evidence?: Edzard Ernst
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Safety: George T Lewith
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Are you being serious?: John S Garrow
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A Hoax?: E Ernst
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Reply to Brown 22 July 2009: Joe Magrath
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Asymmetry in standards of evidence for efficacy and safety: Michael Power
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What is Quackery: James M May
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