Great to see someone else promoting this amazing book. I have read Rapidly Reversible Back Pain at least twice. An easy read and so informative that I could harder put it down.

It is true what Ron says that despite all the money spent on research an answer for back pain is no closer.

Yep, there are lots of references of journal articles in the index of the book.

His suggestion for patients to seek a McKenzie mechanical assessment is essential for anyone suffering from muscle or joint pain that has not responded to previous treatment or for people who are looking to take control of their problem. Most people can learn how to treat their own back or neck and understand how to stop it from coming back.

Sandra McFaul
McKenzie Physiotherapist – advanced level
http://www.herniateddiscguide.com
http://www.ataphysiotherapy.com.au

I was very estatic to see your reader take on the Kevin, MD medical weblog. I got a link to this from another physical therapy blogsite. Ironically, most of them happen to be manual therapists while I seem to be the only MDT credentialed therapist on that site. Yet, they recognized your take as a very informative post. While I am not sure if they knew you were a proponent of the MDT paradigm, I was elated to see that they have a link to further investigate, and I hope some of those manual therapists read your book. I am sure you have probably realized the “tension” that exists between the MDT therapy community and the “manual therapy” community. Perhaps this is part of the reason that the APTA fails to recognize the reliability and efficacy of MDT, since the APTA is largely dominated by FAAOMPT and AAOMPT manual therapists. (In the meantime, a survery done by the APTA found that members found Robin McKenzie to be one of the greatest contributor to our profession…yet they still ignore his work)

Your work has done much to further validate and progress our treatment/assessment approaches. If you consider that at the HEART of physical therapy that we are trying to establish increased funciton and, most importantly, INDEPENDENCE, that MDT most accurately compliments our mission. While hands-on, manual technqiues are sometimes needed (even in the MDT approach), when they are used as a first line of defense and without demonstrating to the patient that they, themselves, have the power to reduce or eliminate their pain WITHOUT US or how to PREVENT pain seriously undermines the core of our profession. While it is often hard when patients come into the clinic “expecting” hands on procedures, to be able to show someone that THEY are in control of their problem is a powerful tool. This is where our profession ought to focus…or else we just ought become massage therapists, personal trainers or chiropractors.

Having had an entry level education that focued on manual therapy, I can only wish that I could go back in time and start over with the MDT courses rather than wasting the first several years of my profession trying to perfect palpation and joint specific mobilization which is now show to have a negative kappa value. I wish I could take back all the ultrasounds, electrical stimulation, myofascial releases, “joint specific mobs” and core stabilizations I did; and when they didn’t work, that I said that their condition just dictated that physical therapy was not for them. Why we don’t teach MDT at the entry level is beyond me. As a PT educator myself who is set to enter the Dip. program this summer, I hope to change that.

Thank-you for your tremendous work.

Christie

Dr. Donelson is an orthopedic surgeon who discovered that the vast majority of the patients he sent to physical therapy that, when seen by a practicioner by the name of Greg Silva (who is a diplomate of the MDT program), rarely needed surgery. Furthermore, when he discovered that those seen by Silva were deemed to have an “irreducible derrangement” (a classification that is thought to not be appropriate for conservative treatment) that THOSE people did remarkably well with surgery as compared to those who did not see an MDT credentialed provider. He has now dedicated a great portion of his time to the conservative treatment of low back pain. To this day, he still participates in high quality studies.

I have read some of them, as well as many others by other MDT invetigators such as Werneke, Long, May, etc.

“Most clincians…” Give me a break. Its all so vague. And just like Tony Brayer says above.. you seem to have the “magic answer” in your book.

And Health Trai nExpress.. are you a physicina? Because I don’t understand your post. Are you saying your surgeon scammed you b/c your back pain returned?