Online Medical Journals?

[kelownagirl]

I hate to sound like the voice of doom, but I believe this is just another way to take parents' money. There are no substantiated studies that using chiropractic treatments cure ADD. It's like the optometrists who say "vision training" cures learning disabilities. I am a huge believer in complementary medicine, but no way on this one. I have a lot of experience with ADD; both of my kids have it and I was a special needs teacher for half of my teaching career. So far, we haven't found the magic bullet for ADD, but, I hope your friend does not spend money on this.

She wants me to spend my money on it. LOL...

[NbyNW]

Crankin' said it very well . . . complementary medicine. There's so much not known about the effectiveness of these treatments. And if they are effective, what the actual mechanism is that is working.

I will be the first to admit that I have no idea why I feel better after I go to my osteopath. Could be placebo effect. Could be that he really did something that is relieving strain off of support muscles that I otherwise don't have voluntary control/access to. I have no way of knowing.

But I also get massages, and go to Pilates classes, and do my at-home PT exercises, and I think all of these things together probably do something for me.

And of course, with kids & ADHD, we're talking about a completely different animal.

[anakiwa]

Pubmed would be a good place to look- though usually you'll just get an abstract- so if you found something that looked promising you'd have to go directly to the particular journal's website (many will then will want to charge you if you aren't a subscriber, though it varies and some will allow you to look at some or all articles for free).

However, I'm doubtful that there is any quality data on this topic. Even for more mainstream chiropractic treatments like back pain, there's only a handful of articles in traditional peer reviewed medical journals.

Good luck.

[roadie gal]

As an M.D. I'll stay out of the CAM/chiropractor part of the conversation...

Www.emedicine.com is a reputable site that has a lot of good medical information.

This one is an ADHD advocacy group that has a lot of articles and links: http://www.add.org/index.html

[carpaltunnel]

In college I worked for a group of doctors (the MD type). They hated to see their patients go to chiropractors because the theory behind it has no basis in science. So I've always had that prejudice...

Then to compound it, my brother married a HS dropout who gathered and ground up leaves and sold them in capsules to people who believed she knew what (and how much of it) could heal diseases or prevent them. She didn't file a tax return for years...when she left my brother she went to chiropractor school on a displaced homemaker grant + the $ she made from the puppy mill she operated in her kitchen, and now she calls herself Doctor.

I'm sticking with MD's.

[Wahine]

Sorry KG, I know you said you weren't asking for advice... but I can't bite my tongue on this one.

I am a certified manual Physical Therapist. After the basic PT deg I went through 6 years of clinical experience, multiple intense courses and equally intense exams to become certified to do spinal manipulation. It is an effective treatment when used appropriately and I use it with caution. I would never consider manipulating the upper neck on a child appropriate or safe. A child's upper neck is not ossified completely and serious damage can occur from a manipulation. In the case of the neck that damage can lead to death. Chiros will argue that the risk is very small, much smaller even than taking an aspirin. That is statistically true. But the consequences could be severe and if there is no good science to support any type of benefit from the technique, why risk it.

I'm sure I'll get flamed for that but so be it.

Note: I am not anti chiro, I know some great chiros that treat very responsibly. I just don't agree with this particular situation.

[NbyNW]

DEFINITELY check the credentials of any type of practitioner that you consult. There is a lot of good information and a lot of misinformation out there, and it can be tough to sort through, especially with "alternative" therapies.

Wahine makes a good point that some treatments may do more harm than good in some cases.

I'm someone who grew up being steered away from alternative treatments because dad is an MD and believes it's all rubbish. Since I don't necessarily do what he says, I've always operated on the rule of thumb that, if I'm desperate and nothing else is working, and if I feel like it can't make things worse, then maybe I'll try it. I think there's an element of being mentally, emotionally and physically receptive to a treatment that can also influence whether it's effective.

To illustrate: at various times and for various reasons, I've let people talk me into trying acupuncture. Generally it's had zero effect on me. In the case of a shoulder injury (dragonboat racing -- the scrip was ice and ibuprofen, which was not helping), it actually made my wrist swell up. Thankfully my wrist did not hurt as much as my shoulder.

I related this whole episode to my Taiwanese grandmother a week later, who had been a qi gong practitioner for 20 years. To which she said, "that's not right. Mind if I try something?" I thought anything my grandmother does to me couldn't possibly make things worse, so I said sure. And then she did this Mr. Miyagi thing and I actually felt better, for about a week. Probably would have lasted longer if I hadn't had another mishap the next week.

Bottom line is, I can't explain why acupuncture hurt and why qi gong hocus-pocus helped. Approach any treatment and practitioner with a healthy skepticism.

[kelownagirl]

Sorry KG, I know you said you weren't asking for advice... but I can't bite my tongue on this one.

I am a certified manual Physical Therapist. After the basic PT deg I went through 6 years of clinical experience, multiple intense courses and equally intense exams to become certified to do spinal manipulation. It is an effective treatment when used appropriately and I use it with caution. I would never consider manipulating the upper neck on a child appropriate or safe. A child's upper neck is not ossified completely and serious damage can occur from a manipulation. In the case of the neck that damage can lead to death. Chiros will argue that the risk is very small, much smaller even than taking an aspirin. That is statistically true. But the consequences could be severe and if there is no good science to support any type of benefit from the technique, why risk it.

I'm sure I'll get flamed for that but so be it.

Note: I am not anti chiro, I know some great chiros that treat very responsibly. I just don't agree with this particular situation.

Actually, I just meant I didn't want to start up a whole thread about the pros and cons of using medication etc. Your points are well taken and give me more reasons to say no to her. She's off my case about taking him to the Chiro now for the time being anyway.

[Triskeliongirl]

I use pubmed, but the problem for you at home may not be runnning the searches but downloading the articles to read. If you run the searches from a University Library, you will be able to download the articles too.

My personal experience with chiropractic is bad. They can hurt you if they don't understand the underlying cause of the problem. I had a chiropracter scream at me cuz I couldn't relax my back, but the problem was a damaged SI joint and all her pounding on it only inflamed it further. She never bothered to run an x-ray to find out my 3 cm LLD was caused by mis-healed fractures and not an 'alignment problem.' It took a good orthopoeadist and physical therapist to get well.